A river ran red through Westbrook last week, but bloody bodies weren’t to blame for the color of the brook that runs behind homes on Cumberland Street.
The dye came from tests done by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection in an effort to locate the source of a substance that had turned the river cloudy white.
“It looked like milk,” said Cumberland Street resident Jim Fahey, who contacted the department to have the situation checked out.
Another beverage came to mind when Fahey’s neighbor, Jen Wescott, returned home Friday to find the brook turned completely red.
“It looked like someone dumped tomato juice in the water,” she said.
The dye pointed to a custodial sink at nearby Congin School, where an employee had been washing paint brushes, as the culprit for the cloudy brook, according to Allan Bickford, director of buildings and grounds for the city’s schools.
The brook runs from near the Congin School on Bridge Street down into the Presumpscot River.
Bickford said he and the Department of Environmental Protection were still trying to verify that the paint was clouding the water. He said because the paint is made of latex and not lead, it doesn’t pose a serious health risk.
The Department of Environmental Protection employee who responded to the scene could not be reached for comment by American Journal deadline. Eric Hamlin, of the department’s solid waste division, agreed with Bickford that latex paint poses much less of a health hazard than lead paint. But, he said, several other variables, such as how much paint got into the water and whether it would get into people’s drinking water, would come into play in determining the potential health and safety issues on both people and the environment.
Penalties handed out by the Department of Environmental Protection are determined by the severity of the impact, the history with the department and whether the offender knowingly broke the law. However, Hamlin said, the department first and foremost is concerned that corrective action is taken to fix a problem, before considering issuing a monetary penalty. Many times, Hamlin said, the offender will incur only the cost of correcting the problem.
Bickford said the sink was shut down and more sinks are being tested, as he and the state determine whether the sinks need new piping. He said Wednesday they were still trying to figure out “what went wrong,” and expected to have an answer by next week.
This isn’t the first time Fahey and Wescott have had issues with the schools dumping onto their property. For years, Wescott said, her yard would smell like chlorine every time the swimming pool at Wescott Junior High School was drained. According to Bickford, that situation was “straightened out” a couple of years ago.
Still, the Cumberland Street residents are concerned for their safety.
“You just can’t be dumping chemicals down the drain,” said Wescott.
Hamlin said it’s generally all right for latex paint brushes to be washed out in the sink. However, he said, especially with large quantities, people should first try to use up the paint or give it to someone who can use it. The second best option is to let it dry up, so that it becomes more of a solid and less of a mess.
Though Fahey wasn’t sure of the details of the Department of Environmental Protection’s findings in terms of actual hazards the dumping could pose, he said, his main concern is for the practice “to cease and desist.”
“I’ve got three small kids,” Fahey said.
School sink to blame for cloudy brook
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