The state has fined Kurn Hattin Homes for Children $6,750 for regulatory violations related to the operations of its in-house water system.
During a routine inspection in March 2022, the Agency of Natural Resources’ Department of Environmental Conservation found that Kurn Hattin had not completed a mandatory testing of its water filter vessels, nor had it updated the system’s operation and maintenance manual.
The water system is being used by residents and staffers at Kurn Hattin, which operates a school and home for children whose families are struggling with economic instability or other hardships.
Regulators have not received any complaints about the water quality, said Kane Smart, litigation attorney for the Agency of Natural Resources.
The agency had given Kurn Hattin until October 2022 to comply with the state’s water system regulations but it had not done so, related court records show. The home was issued a notice of violation and agreed in January to pay the fine and remedy the violations.
Steve Harrison, director of Kurn Hattin Homes, said a couple of its personnel responsible for following the regulations had “dropped the ball” because of unusual circumstances. He said the compliance requirement got lost in the shuffle when Kurn Hattin upgraded its water filtration system sometime in 2020 and afterward changed water operators.
“One didn’t actually transfer the information to the other so we got caught in the middle of all that,” Harrison said in an interview. He said the Kurn Hattin administration had also been occupied with instituting new safety measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.
About 100 children and adults regularly use the home’s water system, Harrison said, with users decreasing since the pandemic.
Kurn Hattin has already paid the $6,750 fine, and has until June 15 to remedy the violations, said Smart of the Agency of Natural Resources.
Kurn Hattin Homes’ water system is among Vermont’s 465 public water systems that serve about 380,000 people, or 60% of Vermonters, according to state data from 2020.
