There was a particularly “unpleasant” water quality event this spring, when students returned from their April break, students say.

Abigail Larrabee, a second-year student at the college, said she returned from break to her dorm at Hillside Hall and when she turned on the faucets, the water was “extremely brown.” She said it had a “foul odor” and what looked like a layer of grease and sediment on top of the water.

Kelting said the water gets especially discolored after breaks because the system gets flushed after sitting stagnant for a couple weeks. Larrabee also said her roommate had come back early and was already using the water, so it had been in motion.

Discolored water has been an issue PSC students have dealt with for years. According to a recent article in the college’s student paper The Apollos, students have dubbed it “Paul Smith’s Iced Tea.” But the college tells students it is “potable” and safe to drink.

A bathtub at a dorm in Hillside Hall at Paul Smith’s College is seen after the April break. (Provided photo — Abigail Larrabee)

The college gets its water from wells, which comes out clean and clear, Kelting said. The problem starts when it hits the college’s aging water infrastructure. Kelting said some of the iron piping was installed when the college was established in 1946. As water runs through the pipes, iron flakes off.

Iron in drinking water is common around the U.S., and it is not considered dangerous to human health. The body needs iron to transport oxygen in the blood, and the body also does not easily absorb iron in water.

There are toxic levels of iron for humans, but those thresholds are “extremely high” Kelting said, and it is improbable for anyone to drink enough that it would be unhealthy.

Kelting said the state Department of Health tests the water and determines its safety. He said unsafe level for iron in water is many orders of magnitude higher than what the college’s numbers show.

“The color of the water does not denote the quality of the water,” Kelting said.

It is safe but ugly, he acknowledged. And according to students, pretty concerning.

Larrabee said she understands that it is deemed safe to drink, but that is hard for her to believe when she fills up her bathtub and it is “sludgy.”

She said if she or her fellow students see any color in the water, they avoid it. They still shower in it and boil it when they’re making pasta, but many rely on drinking bottled water, since it has a better taste than the tap water.

This isn’t too expensive, she said — a $5 case will last them two weeks — but it creates a lot of plastic waste. At a college all about environmental sustainability, it’s counterproductive, she said, and it would be better if they could fill up reusable bottles from the tap.

Larrabee said the college has had a better response to water concerns this semester as students have been more vocal about it. Last year, she said the college installed filters on communal sinks in the dorms.

“So they are making efforts, but it’s still kind of frustrating when you turn on the water and it comes out looking not appetizing at all,” Larrabee said.

She hadn’t heard about the work the college is planning on putting in to the water system yet and she was glad they are trying to fix it.

“It’s good to hear that they’re actually starting to do something,” Larrabee said.

But she added that she wishes this had been done years ago.

Kelting said all of upstate New York is struggling with water quality. As the former executive director of the college’s Adirondack Watershed Institute and a member of the governor’s road salt task force, he said water quality is an issue “near and dear” to his heart.

He said he saw an opportunity after he became the president in November 2022 and started working on a grant. Recently, the college was awarded $700,000 from the Northern Border Regional Commission. This grant required a match from the college, and Kelting said PSC is putting in $200,000 of its institutional funds toward the project. He also said they are seeking more money from the state, too.

The project will likely cost more than this, he said.

Kelting said they plan to start the discovery phase of the project this summer when there are fewer people on campus and they can shut off water to different buildings. He said they hope to move “aggressively and quickly” to replace the pipes and filtration systems.

The college is in the midst of a pending affiliation with the nonprofit Fedcap Group in a major move Kelting hopes will grow the institution’s student body back to its former size, and he wants to give them a quality water system for many years into the future. Eventually, he hopes to have full year-round enrollment at PSC.

Kelting said that 668 students were enrolled in the fall semester. PSC’s enrollment peaked in 2012 with 1,050 students and has been on the decline since.

In the meantime, Larrabee said the iron-rich water is staining tubs and clothes. All the culinary students have white garments, she pointed out.

Over winter break, she said she lived in Essex Hall and they sometimes went days without hot water. Water temperature fluctuates wildly around campus, she said. Sometimes there is no hot water for several days and other times even the lowest cold setting still runs hot.

Larrabee said she has accidentally bumped the faucet in the shower and had to jump back and turn it down after feeling the scalding water.

In these temperature fluctuation cases, she said campus safety lets them shower at other dorms.

Kelting said this is a problem with the campus boilers and though there is not a plan to replace these boilers, there may be in the near future as the college invests in its infrastructure anticipating more students.