Rainwater Causes Overflow In High School Toilets No Danger To Students, Staff In Damp Rogers High School
Rogers High School staffers didn’t have far to go to find a bathroom Friday. Or at least the smell of one.
Toilets overflowed into the school’s business office and counseling center, soaking the carpets with a musty stench that forced employees to open the windows and hold their noses.
The deluge was the result of a spring squall Thursday afternoon. The school’s antiquated drainage funneled the rain into sewer drains, which couldn’t handle the load.
School officials said there was no danger to students or staff. The inch of rainwater that crept through offices didn’t contain sewage, said Don Ganyo, industrial hygienist for the Spokane School District.
“You get so much volume of rainwater, it can’t go down the sewer system fast enough. It’ll come out the nearest drainage, and that’s a toilet,” said Ganyo.
Workers vacuumed carpets and floors until 3 a.m. Friday, and returned to sanitize bathrooms and carpets before school began. Clean-up will continue this weekend.
Staff members were alarmed, then frustrated by the inconvenience. Counselors and secretaries retreated to meeting rooms, avoiding the dank smell in their offices.
Sharon McGinn, secretary in the guidance office, kept a scented candle burning on her desk to mask the odor.
“It smells like sewer,” said McGinn. “You can smell it, but it isn’t that horrendous. If it was that bad, I wouldn’t be here. But then I have a desk by the window.”
One parent complained to the Spokane Regional Health District, concerned that the water might be tainted with sewage. After a meeting with Ganyo, health officials decided there was no danger.
Other schools with similar drainage systems had problems, too. A toilet at Shadle Park High also overflowed, and a pair of portable classrooms at Finch Elementary had to be evacuated when rainwater seeped under doors.
Heavy rains also caused the toilets at Rogers to overflow in August, before staff members returned from summer vacation.
And the boys’ locker room regularly floods, causing a nasty smell, parents said.
The district plans to remodel the locker room if a bond issue proposal is approved in 1998.
There’s no mention of plans to improve the sewer system in the proposal.
, DataTimes