Residents of Aberdeen were greeted with cloudy drinking water after a malfunction in the treatment plant. While there is no immediate health concern for residents, it comes after the former community water superintendent described the plant as ‘ready to fail.’
The City of Aberdeen said last week two filters at the water treatment plant malfunctioned, resulting in increased turbidity in the city's drinking water. That means the water contained a higher level of particulates and may appear murky.
There is no boil water notice and testing has not found disease-causing organisms in the water. However, the city advised the immunocompromised, pregnant and the elderly to speak with health care providers about drinking this water.
The filter failure comes just weeks after the public resignation of the community water superintendent Bob Braun during an Aberdeen city council meeting in May.
“That was an important part of my life, I took care of that plant," Braun said. "It’s something I was proud to take care of. It’s something I warned about. I knew there was going to be problems with equipment coming up that had been neglected for a while because we just didn’t have the staff and support from management to get things done and taken care of.”
Braun acknowledged city manager Joe Gaa has committed money to improve the facility, but he said there are still gaps at the plant.
“They’re still short at least two staffing I understand, and they didn’t have much for applicants here in the first round of trying to find replacements," Braun said. "So, I don’t know what the best option is.”
At the most recent Aberdeen City Council meeting, Gaa said these notices are designed to get residents attention.
“It looks worse than it is, and that’s true," Gaa said. "There’s two types of (drinking water) issues, the one is that it’s okay, so you mail it out within 30 days, and that’s what this was. Where the other one is this is really bad, this isn’t okay, and within 24 hours you have to issue a boil notice. So, there’s only two types of notices.”
Currently, one of the two filters is back online.
