SIDNEY — A presentation of the 2017 Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) revealed no violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act standards at Monday evening’s Sidney City Council workshop session.
Utilities Director William Blakely presented council with the CCR that ensures safe drinking water. His report contained information on the city’s water source, treatment and treatment programs, water plant staffing, definitions of terms, as well as conservation tips and city contact information.
Blakely said Sidney performed all of the required analytic tests on the drinking water and all of the contaminants required to be monitored showed no violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act standards, which was federally enacted in 1998.
He said the water treatment plant (WTP) conducts over 150,000 wet chemistry tests and over 1,900 microbiological tests per year on the city’s water. Sidney also assists in conducting tests for other water systems in the area, he said.
The WTP is staffed 24/7, every day of the year, Blakely noted. The plant has a total of 9 employees, including one part-time person. All full-time employees are licensed and certified by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Blakely pointed out the report contains educational language on common health related contaminants and specified for council the three most well known contaminants, and the symptoms of these contaminants and precautions and treatment directives.
Any water, even bottled water, is going to have certain amount of contaminate in it, Blakely said. But anything not considered pure water, such as even calcium, for example, can be considered a contaminant, he noted.
He also pointed out to council a red notation at the bottom of the table of contaminate detection’s report about a contaminant that was missing from 2016’s CCR. It was caught by the Ohio EPA, he said, and was required to be included with this year’s chart.
Council member Darryl Thurber asked Blakely if consumers of Sidney’s water have ever had any issues as a result of drinking the water. Blakely said he was not aware of any type of previous issues.
“Historically, Sidney public water system has effectively treated its source to meet drinking water quality standard,” he said.
The CCR, Blakely said, must be delivered to residents by July 1 and that a direct link will also be posted on the city’s website at www.sidneyoh.com. Residents can expect to receive the report along with their water bill.
The city’s website also contains a flood action plan and monitors flood levels and projections, and additional news and information about Sidney. Also Blakely said those interested to learn more about Sidney’s water treatment, there will be a public meeting on the CCR at the Water Treatment Plant on July 17, at 3 p.m.
In other business, Council member Joe Ratermann thanked Dr. Alvetro, Area Energy & Electric and Law Director Jeffrey Amick for their contributions to ensure there will be four sessions available for the city’s free swim lessons for this year.
During other council member comments, Thurber said he was “pleasantly shocked” to learn how well Sidney placed nationally for site selection.
He also inquired about the roof and the patch work done on the Ohio Building after all of the recent rain. He was told the roof is still actively leaking and that after the piles of asbestos are taken out engineers will be able to get in to provide a more accurate estimate of necessary work. Contractors are expected to start asbestos removal within the next two weeks, City Manager Mark Cundiff said.
Mayor Mike Barhorst asked council to consider the request of Habitat For Humanity to wave the tap-in fee for a new home’s water system for discussion at a future meeting. Thurber also requested for council to look at the issue of vehicle being parked in the front grass of residences at a future meeting.
