Penn State issued a drinking water advisory afternoon, warning against usage of on-campus drinking water, yesterday, which will be resolved "hopefully in a couple of days," a university official said.
As of press time yesterday, the State College Borough Water Authority Web site stated there were "no customer alerts at this time."
A statement on Penn State Live, live.psu.edu, advises students to use boiled or bottled water for "drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes and food preparation until further notice."
Last night, some students stocked up on water at local stores.
"I have one, two, three people, at least three people in line right now with gallons of water," Maurriah Arnold, a manager at McLanahan's Penn State Room, 414 E. College Ave., said. "We've sold a lot."
At dining commons, fountain soda machines were unusable last night. Students were, however, able to drink milk from the machines.
"We can't serve the fountain soda or anything that's water-based. The only thing we can give is milk. I think most of the milk in the dining commons is out," Mike Brungo, assistant manager at South Food District, said last night. "I think another Pepsi truck is coming tonight for an emergency shipment."
Office of Physical Plant (OPP) spokesman Paul Ruskin said the issue is not unique to University Park, and it has also affected outlying regions. The drinking water's turbidity, which refers to its clarity, is directly related to the rainfall this week, Ruskin said.
University Park's warning came after early morning complaints yesterday that prompted the OPP inspection of one of the wells in the Big Hollow Well Field area, located behind the Blue Band Building. Its exact location cannot be released for security reasons, Penn State spokeswoman Vicki Fong said, adding that the inspection led officials to recognize unusually high water turbidity levels present.
While a high turbidity level is not a health risk by itself, it affects the ability to disinfect campus water, said John Gaudlip, water systems engineer for OPP. Chlorine is added to the water to disinfect it, he added.
Ruskin said he feels confident that after the testing is done, "we will find that the water has been safe." There will be another public notification when tests have been performed, and it has been deemed safe to drink, he added.
Fong said she hopes the notification will be issued "in a couple of days."
"We're hoping it will be very short term," she said.
Fong said the recognition of the cloudy water prompted the university to contact the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
"And one of their rules is to release a public notice," Fong added. The information was sent out via PSUTXT and Penn State Live yesterday.
The well in question was immediately turned off and temporarily removed from the university water system, Ruskin said. The university is also flushing the campus pipes, Gaudlip added.
Fong said there are a total of eight wells, but they don't operate all at one time because the university turns them as needed. All eight wells feed into one piping system, she said, adding that the number of people affected could not be determined.
Ruskin said people should seek out other sources of drinking water.
"Until the tests come in ... use bottled water or any other source than the standard water supply on campus," Ruskin said. "If you use the potable tap water, boil it for a period of one minute."
