Lima News, Jan. 6, 1998
By Robert Snell
The Lima News
The general manager of the Ramada Inn Lima chained its doors and "evacuated" guests Sunday after repeated problems with the hotel's water supply, The Lima News has learned.
At least five guests developed rashes Monday, which guests blamed on a decrepit well-water system that pumped "orange, rusty water" into hotel sinks, toilets and shower stalls.
"The rooms were filthy. The toilets were orange. They told us they had iron in the water," Irvine, Calif., resident Joe Adlesh said after returning home Monday night with a rash he said he contracted during his hotel stay.
"It's like chickenpox. My wife (Virginia) and I have terrible rashes and red dots and little scabs. We're concerned because we brushed our teeth with the water and wonder what's happening on the inside. We're wondering if it's worse than a skin rash."
No one answered the telephone at the 101-room Ramada Inn on Monday but the Bluelick Road hotel chain's corporate offices confirmed the hotel was closed. A corporate employee could not provide an explanation for the closing and referred all calls to the hotel's general manager, Don VanSchoyck.
VanSchoyck said he "evacuated" the hotel after consulting with the hotel's corporate office.
"All I'm at liberty to say is I have water problems, people are working on it and by the end of the week or the first of next week we should be operational," he said.
"I shut the hotel down on a voluntary basis to correct problems we're having. I've gotten a rash of phone calls on that; as far as the (Environmental Protection Agency) or the health department shutting us down. But nobody shut us down. Corporate and I decided to shut us down."
VanSchoyck said Ramada Inn never has been fined by the EPA or the health department and said the water problems are shared by well users along Bluelick Road.
He added that some of the hotel's part-time employees have filed for unemployment benefits and are waiting for the hotel to reopen.
The water problems have attracted the attention of the Ohio EPA and the Allen County Health Department. Health department Commissioner David Rosebrock called the state EPA after receiving a complaint Monday. He said the EPA governs well-water systems and previously has monitored the hotel's supply. His concern focused on the two items that have received licenses from his office: the hotel's swimming pool and restaurant facilities.
"We'll keep in touch and when the supply is reconnected we'll want to make sure the lines are flushed out properly," he said.
He labeled the water problem as the most recent episode in a long-running ordeal that dates back to the 1970s.
"That facility has always had problems with quality of water. Its high iron and sulfur content takes constant attention to get a decent supply because of the ground water," Rosebrock said.
VanSchoyck said Ramada has spent $2.7 million renovating the hotel since the franchise bought it in March 1996. He said the hotel is pushing to renovate the water system now that workers have completed interior renovations.
The Adleshes spent Sunday night in the hotel for free because they had to leave early Monday morning and asked for permission to stay even though VanSchoyck had evacuated guests and employees.
The Adleshes were in town visiting relatives and attending a wedding reception at the hotel. They paid $180 and want a refund – after they visit their doctor Tuesday.
Their in-laws, Robert and Claire O'Neill of Bear, Del., and their son Andrew, also are suffering from an identical rash and are planning to visit their doctor today after spending four nights at the Ramada. O'Neill filed a claim against the hotel chain Monday.
"We're not sick but three of us are itching, we've never had anything like that before, O'Neill said. "I kept giving them chances, it was convenient and didn't feel like moving. I've been in some real rinky-dink hotels but I've never been in a hotel like that.
"But it didn't give us a bad taste of Lima in our mouth."
Issue: Not only should drinking water be safe to drink, but also pleasant to use.
How would you make sure that the drinking water in your community always smells and tastes good, is not too hard, and does not stain clothing or plumbing fixtures?
Voluntary standards for certain (but not all) aesthetic contaminants have been set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as directed by the U.S. Congress. These are called secondary standards and are intended to protect the public welfare by making the water esthetically acceptable to the public.
Water systems are encouraged to try to meet these secondary standards so that:
The Ohio legislature has required the director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to regulate aesthetic contaminants in drinking water. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has adopted voluntary secondary standards that are the same as those developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Community water systems in Ohio must meet the secondary standard for iron and manganese. No secondary standards are in place for hardness or hydrogen sulfide. Many water systems choose to remove them, however, due to customer demand.