Water line break closes high school

Contractors access the damage and what repairs need to be made to a water line at Grants High School. The water line on the second floor of one of the school's new buildings broke early Tuesday morning and rained down so much water that classes were canceled. Classes for Wednesday are also canceled so that staff and contractors can finish clean up and make repairs to the school. [Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent]

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — A broken hot water line at 4 a.m. Tuesday resulted in canceling all classes at Grants High School for Tuesday and also today.

"We will make a determination on Wednesday (today) whether we will have classes on Thursday or not," said Kilino Marquez, superintendent of Grants-Cibola County schools.

Notice to parents and guardians about classes will be made through the Albuquerque TV stations, 4, 7, 13 and KMIN radio in Grants. Parents will know by the late news today and the early morning news on Thursday, Marquez said. The cancellations affect 955 ninth- through 12th-grade students and 75 teachers, aides and school staff.

Marquez said he received a call early Tuesday morning that a water line had broken at the school.

When Paul Carattini, who oversees all school district facilities and Elmer Griego, maintenance supervisor, walked in the door, they immediately contacted him and said cancel classes.

Damage $100,00-$200,000
Marquez said he could not pinpoint the amount of damage done to the school since a lot of work still needs to be done. He said it would probably be above $100,000, but less than $200,000.

"It's not a good idea to have students go to classes with water all over the floor," he said. "We have 30 to 40 people working on the problem."

A second floor, one-inch copper line carrying hot water and connected to a valve broke and sent water into two classrooms on the second floor and two on the first floor, he said.

Water ran down between the walls causing sheet rock damage as well as wetting all the electric wiring.

"The water was flowing down the stairs at the north end of the school," he said.

The break occurred in the completed second phase wing, the north addition that was occupied in October 2005.

Marquez categorically ruled out any kind of vandalism and said it was just an accident.

Cause unknown
"We are not sure what caused the line to break," he said.

The district administrative staff is meeting with the contractor Bradbury Stamm; the insurance company, Paul Davis Insurance of Albuquerque; and subcontractors to determine what happened.

The line was repaired and welded shut and water was scheduled to be turned on overnight to see if the fix holds, Marquez said.

Walls need to be repaired; one classroom's furniture, 20 desks were ruined as well as some textbooks; insulation was saturated between walls; and the ceiling tiles were ruined.

"First we have to identify what caused the problem, then we have to fix it and make sure it doesn't happen again," Marquez said.

"So many things could have caused it, a boiler problem, a broken valve, we just don't know."

Water heating
Water comes into several buildings on campus and immediately flows to boilers that heat the water and circulate it around the buildings, Marquez said.

This provides heating for the school and hot water for all the sinks and the cafeteria, he said.

The valves control the pressure of the water, so the contractor and sub contractors are working on what happened and possible solutions, he said.

"A restoration company has been called in to help clean up the mess and it is using moisture meters to measure the amount of moisture between the walls and in the sheet rock," Marquez said.

There could be warranties involved and the insurance company is not only checking that out but also aiding in the investigation, Marquez said.

"We want to make sure it is 100 percent safe for our students and employees before we allow them to return," he said.

A basketball game Tuesday night was allowed to continue since the water situation did not affect the gymnasium.

— To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: tiffin.independent@yahoo.com.