Students at two Aroostook county schools will start the year drinking bottled water, until the district can finish installing a new filtration system.
Mill Pond School and Hodgdon Middle/High School in Hodgdon were both tested for pfas in the drinking water last fall, and were found to have levels over the state's drinking water standard. Since the tests came back in December, the schools have not been able to use the water for drinking or cooking.
Tyler Putman is the superintendent for the school district, which serves around 500 students.
"I know this is kind of an annoyance for people, you understand that this is a process that we have to kind of go through and it's not an immediate fix but we're so happy that we have a community that's so supportive," Putnam said.
The district has been in the process of installing filters for the water system, and received a 120,000 grant from the Maine Drinking Water Program. Putnam expects the final costs will slightly exceed the grant.
"We were obviously very appreciative for the drinking water program, because without that doing a project like this would be very difficult, however, it is an expensive project," he said.
Putnam says he expects the filters to be installed around the end of November.
