Spring Break
URI confirms water contamination in BISC, ban effective until Tuesday
Lindsay Lorenz
Issue date: 10/21/08 Section: News
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As a result, a water advisory urging students and faculty members not to drink tap water was issued.
The independent company that analyzes university water for contaminants, BAL labs, alerted Facility Services Thursday that a sample taken the previous day was returned with positive results for coliform.
There are 10 buildings in which regular water samples are conducted on a rotational basis. Each week, the lab collects samples from five of those buildings.
According to Jerry Sidio, director of Facility Services, it is not uncommon for initial tests to come back with false positives.
On Friday another water sample was taken, and on Sunday the lab confirmed that coliform was still present.
"You get two positive samples and you've got a problem," Sidio said.
Testing revealed the site of contamination to be the Biological Science Center.
Though there is no definite answer as to what caused the contamination, there are two likely possibilities, he said.
First, waterlines near BISC may have been damaged during recent construction and contaminants may have seeped in as a result.
One other possibility is the contaminants may have been used in a BISC laboratory sink and a malfunction in the faucet's water pressure sucked water back in instead of it going down the drain.
On Saturday and Sunday a crew of university engineers and plumbers were sent to BISC to investigate possible sources of contamination.
"They didn't find any smoking guns," Sidio said.
Since little else is known about the conditions in which bacteria was introduced into the university's system, he said the university may never be able to pinpoint the cause.
He added that Facility Services is continuing to investigate.
In the meantime, campus waterlines are being chlorinated to eliminate any traces of bacteria that may have traveled past BISC.
