Carson High School has water

Dishes sitting dirty for a week in the culinary arts kitchen can finally be cleaned. And students can once again wash their hands in the bathroom sinks.

After being shut off for a week, the water at Carson High School was turned back on Tuesday.

"Oh, this is wonderful," said culinary arts teacher Penny Reynolds.

Reynolds has had to redirect the focus of her class from actually cooking to learning about theory and nutrition, which most students didn't like.

"It was a waste," said junior Adair Nowacki. "Especially in our science and culinary arts classes."

Without water, chemistry students could not conduct experiments and culinary arts students couldn't cook the meat and produce purchased for that segment of class. Most of it spoiled.

Joey Padilla, 16, is anxious to get back to class as usual.

"It's culinary," he said. "It's the only fun class I've got. We haven't been able to focus on our main subject and we've had to stray off."

Traces of antifreeze and other water-treatment chemicals were detected last week after a valve malfunctioned allowing water from the cooling system to leak into the domestic supply.

All water was shut off to drinking fountains and bathrooms in the main building. Portable toilets were set up outside and 7-Up Bottling Co. provided drinking water.

The nearly two miles of pipe within the school had to be drained before the water could be turned on again.

School officials received word Tuesday morning that the water from all sources in the school had no detected harmful chemicals.

Some students are not assured.

"I don't think anyone is going to drink it," said Janelle Henkle, 16. "They're scared."

Mike Mitchell, director of operations, said it cost the school district about $7,000 to test the water, fix the problem and provide alternatives to using the high school's running water.

Officials are in the process of removing the cooling system to replace it with a more modern version as part of projects outlined in a 2000 bond issue.