Wednesday, July 18, 2001

City council’s public utilities committee met last night with water treatment plant supervisor Jennifer Donahue and Mayor Bob Cleary to determine what went wrong during a recent water contamination episode that left a nursing home and several homes without water.

"We’re not here to criticize," councilman Jesse Roberts told Cleary and Donahue, "we are here to see what we can do to help."

Donahue said a contingency plan is in place for emergencies akin to the problem that arose on June 10.

On June 10, Ironton Public Services director John A. McCabe received a report from the Ironton Police Department that an odor was coming from water at the Massie residence, located at 2903 S. 12th St. In a memo sent from McCabe to Cleary, McCabe said Massie complained of a "strong smell in his house from water in the kitchen sink."

In the memo, McCabe said he told Massie not to use the water, but leave it running and he would send someone from the treatment plant to take a sample. McCabe also sent an employee from the distribution department to "pull his meter and flush his service line."

At about 10 p.m. Cleary contacted McCabe informing him that Jo-Lin Health Center was also experiencing the same problem with their water.

Water employees flushed fire hydrants along the main loop in the area and McCabe said the hydrants were left open for about 4-hours with the last hydrant at Adams Lane and U.S. 52 turned off at about 2 a.m. Monday morning.

McCabe said he then began to conduct water surveys of businesses – including Matlack, Tri-State Wilbert Vault, BP Oil Company, ODOT, and Muth Lumber. He said once returning to the office, he prepared letters to the companies surveyed and instructions to install backflow prevention devices. These devices prevent material from back flowing into the water lines if water pressure drops.

McCabe said he also contacted other businesses with instructions to retest existing backflow prevention devices.

Donahue was on vacation during the situation and in a letter she sent to Cleary, she outlined her belief that the situation was not handled correctly.

She said the first boil water advisory was lifted on June 12 before a repeat water sample was taken.

Donahue reinstated the "no use" water advisory on June 18 and conducted more water testing. The advisory was lifted until June 22 after tests were returned.

According to city officials, the contingency plan was not followed and Cleary told the committee, "there were errors made," and the mayor added that in any future situations, the plan will "be followed from here on out."

Donahue said the cause of the contamination is still unknown.

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