by Alex Brooks
The Grafton Senior Center was immediately closed on Monday afternoon after a routine water sample taken from the faucet there tested positive for E. coli (Escherichia coli) bacteria.
The sample was taken Thursday, August 4, and the test results were returned on Monday morning. The Rensselaer County Department of Aging immediately closed the Senior Center while the problem was being investigated. The Hanson Well Drilling and Pump Company of Nassau, which installed the system, Grafton Supervisor Tyler Sawyer, Rensselaer County Health Department officials and Rensselaer County Department of Aging Commissioner Carol Rosbozom soon arrived at the Senior Center to try to determine what the problem was.
The Grafton Senior Center has a state of the art filtration system which uses a carbon filter and a UV light system to purify the water. A sensor in the UV system was not working properly. That was corrected, and by the end of Monday afternoon Hanson said the filtration system was working perfectly. Tyler Sawyer also said a water softener tank connected to the water line did not seem to have been maintained properly and may or may not have had something to do with the problem. To be on the safe side, they disinfected the well with chlorine on Monday afternoon.
On Tuesday they flushed the system out with water but found that there was still chlorine in the water, so they couldn’t take a sample yet to test for bacteria. On Wednesday there was still too much chlorine in the water to test it, although there was less than there had been the day before. Rosbozom said they hope to be able to test the water on Thursday, but even if they are able to take a sample on Thursday, the test results wouldn’t be ready until Friday afternoon, so the Senior Center was closed at least through Friday, August 12.
None of the seniors or staff has become ill or shown any symptoms of contracting disease from this incident.
The Department of Aging contacted all the seniors who normally come to the Grafton Center for lunch to tell them not to come in on Monday and offered to deliver meals to their homes. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the County bused the seniors to the Hoosick Falls Senior Center. Meals to be delivered to seniors at home, which are normally made in Grafton, were made in Troy this week.
