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Water managers, council, meet to discuss water quality issues
Uniontown City Council members met Monday evening with the town's water supplier during a special meeting to discuss water safety in the town.
Rick McDaniels, manager with Consolidated Rural Water District No. 2 (CRWD No. 2), Hubert Thomas, board chair of CRWD No. 2 and Steve Porzio, manager with Public Wholesale Water Supply District No. 13 in Linn County, appeared before the council to field questions on the town's water supply.
The town buys public water from CRWD No. 2. McDaniels said he had asked the more experienced water manager, Porzio, for help.
Uniontown's Superintendent Bobby Rich has been concerned about the chlorine residual readings being low in town. He routinely does random testing at homes and finds varying levels of chlorine residuals in different areas of the town.
The presence of chlorine residual in drinking water indicates that: a sufficient amount of chlorine was added initially to the water to inactivate the bacteria and some viruses that cause diarrheal disease; and, the water is protected from recontamination during storage, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website.
"We have an obligation to deliver safe water (to the town)," Councilman Dustin Goalden said.
"Everything I've seen is pretty good numbers in the east side of town," Porzio said. "The new home next to the (water) tower was not very good, but it was good at Ron's (a convenience store on the west side of town)."
Goalden asked for the group's recommendation to rectify the problem.
"You need to move more water, have a flushing program," Porzio said. "If you don't flush the water, it's not fit to be sold. In Fulton last year, we had to start flushing."
McDaniels said CRWD2 is delivering water with a chlorine residual of four parts per million, and one part per million is all that is required by law.
"I talked to Frank Young (a local engineer) about it." Thomas said. "You need to move more water."
Dead ends in the water pipes and low usage are causing the different readings around the town, McDaniels said.
Rich said when USD 235 waters its grounds, the chlorine residuals go up. That helps flush out the water system, he said, but he is averse to "running fresh water on the ground," as in a flushing program.
"I hope we can find something else that can be done," Rich said.
"Find your bad areas...flush those areas, trying to move as much water as possible," Porzio said. "I'll work with these guys. I'll not charge for that. It's about keeping people safe."
He said the state mandate is 1.0 for the level.
"So as long as residual is there, you can feel safe, the water is disinfected," Porzio said. "It's a matter of everyone working together."
Councilwoman Danea Esslinger thanked the men for bringing the information to the council.