SIDNEY — During a presentation of the 2021 Consumer Confidence Report (CCR), Sidney City Council members learned although the city’s drinking water had no issues with violations from contaminants of the Safe Drinking Water Act standards, the city received a violation for conducting a test of city water one day earlier than the Ohio Environment Protection Agency’s (OEPA) required window for the fourth quarter.
Monday, Utilities Director William Blakely presented Sidney City Council with the CCR that ensures safe drinking water at its workshop session. 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, except for a “failure to monitor” violation due to the fourth quarter disinfection by-products sample being taken a day early of the OEPA required sampling window for the quarter.
The Safe Drinking Water Act standards were federally enacted in 1998.
Although the city’s results of the sample were below the maximum contaminant levels, the sample was not collected in the required time period, Blakely said.
“We returned back into compliance the very next quarter. The quality of the drinking water was not compromised due to this oversight. This sampling schedule was discussed with staff and we expect no further sampling issues,” he assured council members.
The water treatment plant (WTP) is staffed 24/7, every day of the year, by a total of nine employees, Blakely noted. Water plant employees are licensed and certified by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“The city is required by law to incorporate the following information into the CCR: Source of the city’s water supply, any contaminants detected, health effects of contaminants, any OEPA violations, availability of source water assessment reports, specific contaminant educational information,” Blakely said.
“Last year,” he continued, “the city supplied each customer with a notice of availability to obtain a copy of the CCR that outlined this information for the previous year (2020). This year, we will be supplying information to our customers with a CCR that will outline this information for data obtained in 2021. The notice is printed on three months of utility bills and posted on the city Facebook page.”
The CCR, Blakely said, must be delivered to residents by July 1 and a direct link is posted on the city’s website at
https://www.sidneyoh.com/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/156. Residents may also receive a hard copy of the report at the city’s revenue collections office at 201 W. Poplar St., the city’s service center at 415 S. Vandemark Road, or by calling Blakely at 937-498-8152 to have one mailed out.
The city’s website also contains a flood action plan and monitors flood levels and projections, and additional news and information about Sidney.
In other business near the end of the meeting, Mayor Mardie Milligan and Council member Mike Barhorst reminded all that the city of Sidney will next year host the Great Miami Riverway Summit in the spring of 2023.
City Manager Andrew Bowsher shared the following:
• The city’s natural gas aggregation supplier is filing bankruptcy. The city will be negotiating a new natural gas supply contract, but it will probably be summer until the new contracted rate is announced. So, in the mean time, those participating in the aggregation program will revert to the standard choice offer, until that time. Responding to Council member Jenny VanMatre about rate changes, Bowsher said the rate will probably change from the negotiated rate of .43 cents up to the mid to low .70 cent mark.
• Traffic patterns are changing on state Route 47 due to ongoing construction on the roadway near Fourth Avenue.
• City tax offices will be open Saturday, April 9, from 8 a.m. to noon to assist with the filing of local tax returns that are due by Monday, April 18.
