Posted on 02/11/2005 7:27:08 PM PST by nickcarraway
Who budged a heavy steel grate that covered an opening to a utility's water tank? And after divers found a missing woman dead in that tank, how would the public know if it was getting safe drinking water?
Those two questions marked a perplexing Thursday for authorities investigating the death of chemist Geetha Angara at a water utility in Totowa, and for frazzled officials and residents waking up to a boil-water order.
As police focused on the 43-year-old water tester's last moments, Passaic Valley Water Commission customers in 17 North Jersey towns were affected in the aftermath of Angara's mysterious death.
The utility's order was announced in a variety of ways that produced widespread uncertainty: School officials in Elmwood Park closed schools for the day, some businesses shut their doors, rumors flew through neighborhoods, and officials complained about haphazard alerts.
Investigators are treating Angara's death as a possible homicide. They continue to focus on a water testing station above the tank where the senior chemist is believed to have been working Tuesday morning. She was found Wednesday evening after the tank had been drained.
The boil-water order was declared soon after Angara was found and described by state and company officials as precautionary. It was suspended Thursday at 3 p.m. after tests showed no tap water contamination, a PVWC spokesman said. Officials had initially shut the plant Wednesday at 2 a.m.; since then, customers have been receiving water from the North Jersey Water Commission and other off-site storage tanks, officials said.
In an example of the general uncertainty, Clifton Schools Superintendent Michael Rice said he heard about the order Thursday at 6 a.m. through a city fire official. Staff members in the schools, where enrollment tops 10,000 students, handed out cups of bottled water throughout the day and placed warning signs over fountains.
"I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that heads of school districts and municipalities across the county would be given a phone call to let them know what is going on," Rice said. "Couldn't we be put on some kind of reverse 911 system? Couldn't we be called?"
PVWC officials reached some municipal water departments and media outlets Wednesday night, spokesman Ernie Landante said. The company also sought to relay the information through affected counties' reverse-911 calling systems, he said.
"It's beyond what is required in terms of notification," he said.
Word came later in the morning for the Passaic County Department of Health, which then contacted local health departments, a spokesman said.
"The county Health Department wasn't part of the early response," said spokesman Steven Summers. "We wish we would have been notified a day in advance because we are extremely good at getting out information to the public."Investigators and family members, meanwhile, remained puzzled as to how Angara, with 12 years' experience at the plant, could have fallen or otherwise entered the tank's frigid waters. The mother of three was last seen walking to a water-testing station Tuesday at 10 a.m. and was reported missing more than 13 hours later.
On Wednesday, officials drained several tanks to allow police divers better access during repeated searches. Angara's body was found in a sump at the bottom of a clear-water tank with a depth of 35 feet and diameter of 100 feet. Accessing the tank requires removing a heavy, 16-square-foot steel grate, authorities said.
Investigators found the grate partially open when they arrived on the scene, but said it was possible that workers or dive teams had moved it. The grate was taken to a crime lab to be checked for fingerprints and other evidence, Passaic County Prosecutor James F. Avigliano said.
"I can tell you this - it's difficult to imagine one person lifting that [grate]," he said. The lack of leads has been frustrating, he said, but detectives have been "working like hell on this because we owe it to the family."
Avigliano and other authorities emphasized that nothing is being ruled out as they continue work at the site, including interviews with the plant's 79 other employees.
Asked whether Angara might have encountered someone at the tank, he said it would be "very difficult" for an intruder to enter the plant and that there was no indication that Angara had any enemies.
Police said they do not believe Angara was overcome by chlorine or other fumes.
Relatives at Angara's Holmdel home could not be reached Thursday but have voiced bewilderment over the circumstances of her death.
An autopsy was performed Thursday but no cause of death had initially been determined, a spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's Office said.
Angara was last seen walking down a long flight of stairs that ended above a below-ground tank where water flows out of a half-inch hose that passes out of the tank, through test gauges and back into the tank below, Avigliano said.
"Picture a dungeon in your dreams and that's about what it looks like," he said.
Authorities have denied the media access to the plant, citing Homeland Security-related concerns.
Angara was scheduled to work Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. A co-worker later found Angara's purse and cellphone in her office, and a plant operator noticed the chemist's car still in the lot at 9:15 p.m., Totowa Police Chief Robert Coyle said. Police got a call from a plant supervisor at 11:22 p.m., Coyle said. Avigliano gave an earlier time for that call on Wednesday but said Thursday that he had received incorrect information.
Officers from Totowa, West Paterson and Little Falls initially searched the plant's grounds and buildings. Divers from the Sheriff's Department began a search after the sheriff gave the go-ahead just after midnight, a department spokesman said.
Using floodlights, officers eventually found a sneaker, then later a clipboard and radio just below the grate, and finally a body.
Workplace safety inspectors inspected the plant Thursday, said Robert Corrales, spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Inspectors found a range of violations during a visit in April 2001, including improper railings and slipping hazards near the filtration plant's basins. Those problems were fixed, Corrales said.
A PVWC spokesman said the plant will be disinfected with heavy amounts of chlorine before coming back on line Saturday morning.
Geetha is an unusual name to me, possibly from India?
:)
What dy'a bet this story dies?
First,13 hours later is pathetic.That alone tells me this plant is poorly operated.
Second,not to denigrate such employees,but,lumping one of them in with the supposed deaths and so forth of "scientists" recently is bogus.
Thanks for taking the time to post. Interesting.
Yes, I think it is Indian. . .she may be from India; but she could be from Pakistan. . .don't know. She could be Christian or Muslim. . .or. . ..
Makes one more curious; when they offer limited information. I hope we hear more about this; but suspect it will be a 'quiet investigation'. . .
bump
Of course it will die (this story), can't have too many facts messing up the "truths" that we will be fed.
News announced it was MURDER.
FOX 5 News.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.