The Senate Committee on Planning and Environmental Protection voted Wednesday to subpoena two Education Department employees to testify on water contamination at the Joseph Sibilly Elementary School.
For the second year in a row, it was learned just before school opening that water at Sibilly was contaminated. Sunday night, Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds said that Caribbean Safe Water Labs advised the water should not be consumed until additional samples are tested.
The subpoenaed employees are Julie Mae Monsanto, an Education staffer who took samples of water from the school's cistern earlier this year, and Jomo McLean, former head of Education's maintenance division.
In a letter that committee Chairman Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg wrote to Simmonds on Monday, he said, "My colleagues and I have exercised extraordinary patience in this matter, but none of us could suppress our outrage when we learned that the water at Sibilly School was once again contaminated with toxic chemicals."
The Source reported in August 1999 that water at Sibilly School and the James Monroe Annex was contaminated by volatile organic chemicals. Education Department officials had known of the contamination for months but failed to notify parents even after being ordered to do so by the V.I. Planning and Natural Resources Department.
Despite months of questions and hearings, the source of the contamination has never been pinned down.
Donastorg has scheduled a public hearing on the contamination for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26. The evening hour will make it easier for parents as well as the general public to attend, he said.
Simmonds, in her Sunday announcement, also said water at Charlotte Amalie High School and at the department's Curriculum Center in Tutu is contaminated.
