North Elementary re-opened after water incident last week

MOSES LAKE — North Elementary will be reopening for normal operations today after it was closed last Wednesday due to an issue with water quality caused by nearby work being conducted by the city of Moses Lake.  

“School will be operational, on time, tomorrow morning and we are more than excited to be reopening North Elementary to our students, and I'm sure our families are elated, as well,” Moses Lake School District’s Director of Public Relations Ryan Shannon said.  

According to Shannon, the city has construction nearby, opened a fire hydrant and debris got into the water. Then, when teachers started to arrive at around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, an unfamiliar smell had filled the building, which caused MLSD to make the decision to bus students to an alternative location. 

The school remained closed throughout the rest of last week. Originally, the district thought they would be able to reopen the elementary school Thursday; however, the Grant County Health District and Washington Department of Health needed to conduct more tests to ensure the water was safe for the students. Shannon then told the Columbia Basin Herald; the school would be reopened Monday. However, because of continued testing, the school remained closed yesterday. 

Health officials have now completed water testing as of Monday at 3 p.m. and confirmed that chlorine levels and all other results are within the normal range. With these assurances, Shannon said the district will be reopening North Elementary for normal operations Tuesday.  

“We will have bottled water and a gallon of water on site, but the water is safe and for consumption,” Shannon said. “There will be from time to time, crews going to go back in at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning just to continue to do a flush of the system, because after the water sits there for a little bit, we do get a little bit of that discoloration, but it is literally just a discoloration. There is nothing wrong with the water, and it is good to go.”