An 11th grade Alpena High School student was working on her science project for an upcoming competition on Wednesday when she ran into a problem. It's a problem that's affected her entire school district, maybe even further.

Alpena High School students have won hundreds of awards for their work in science but one student's project has drawn some attention of a different kind. It's making folks worry about the water. Instead of using distilled water for her experiment, the student tested the school's tap water for mercury.

"It was just a freak thing where we didn't have any and we felt like it was perfectly alright to run some out of the tap," said science teacher Mark Welch.

What the student found shocked everyone.

"The acceptable level is 2 parts per billion. We were finding in excess of 700 parts per billion," Welch said.

Welch says the piece of equipment the student used is pretty advanced for a high school. It costs about $1,500. It showed mercury content in water from across the school campus, but none in distilled or well water.

"If it, in fact, it was correct, we had a serious problem," said Superintendent James Trammell.

The science teachers at Alpena High School tested the water from the taps over and over again. Each test showed high levels of mercury. It's the same water that students drink every day.

Alpena school officials had students bring bottled water on Friday and some local stores donated water. The Arkansas Department of Health is testing the water.

In some good news; the preliminary test results on Saturday morning show the water is fine but more extensive testing will probably take until the end of next week. In the meantime, Trammell says the school district will err on the side of caution.

"We're going to suggest that they send water until we get the final decision from the state that the water's okay," Trammell said.

Trammell says he feels relatively confident the water is okay, and it's probably an accuracy problem with the high school's equipment. He says, if Alpena's water contains mercury, it's possible others in the Boone-Carroll Water system could also. That system also serves towns like Eureka Springs, Berryville, Green Forest and Harrison.

Exposure to small amounts of mercury over a long period of time can cause a variety of neurological symptoms.