Aberdeen residents recently got an unsettling alert from their municipal leaders relating to their drinking water. With questions swirling, officials have an update for the city.
It’s been a long few weeks for water management in Aberdeen, with residents contending with the public resignation of the community’s water superintendent and a notice last week regarding water clarity.
City manager Joe Gaa said the recent alert was designed to turn heads.
“The city of Aberdeen does not meet treatment standards – and that really gets people’s attention, and that’s what the notices are supposed to do," Gaa said. "They all start out that way, and then you read specifically and get down through the notice. ‘This is what happened, you don’t have to do anything, here’s what we’ve done to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.'”
The incident saw two filters at the local water plant malfunction. As a result, residents' drinking water was found to have a higher turbidity, or cloudiness rate, than permitted. At the mid-month peak, a water sample found 5.35 turbidity units in the water. The standard for “clean” water would be one unit.
Gaa explained the repair process.
“We have eight filters, and those filters measure the turbidity rate," Gaa said. "One of them peaked, so we isolated it and kept an eye on it and went back later to do some maintenance and cleaning. I like to simplify it as – we have a filtration process just like a lot of people have filters in their homes, and periodically you have to clean them and maintain them. The big thing is the drinking water is safe.”
But uncertainties still circle the plant – amplified by the resignation of the former super Bob Braun. In response, Gaa said they’re addressing long-term challenges faced by the facility.
“The plant is a constant maintenance issue as any plant is, our water source provides some challenges but the issues we’re having right now are not new to the plant," Gaa said. "They’ve been something that has plagued the plant for years. I’d actually say from a maintenance standpoint in the last couple of months we’ve made some major repairs and making sure things are going and we have the ability to make quality water.”
Importantly, disease-causing organisms have not been found in the water while the malfunctioning filters were online.
