December 2023
Borough Council Meeting
Boil Water Advisory Leaves Residents Steaming
Residents of the subdivision near Caroline & Geneva Drives have expressed frustration and confusion over a boil water notice that was issued and then lifted without clear communication from the local water department. At the December Council meeting, East Pete's water department supervisor Scott Liggins appeared so that he could answer questions from Council and citizens.
Background
Liggins explained that during a vendor's inspection in 2022, a small leak was found in the Caroline Drive cul-de-sac. Prior to that, there had also been an emergency water main break where a valve was damaged nearby (on Geneva Drive). The water department subsequently planned for repair work in 2023 to fix the leak that was detected and the valve at the same time to save on construction costs and minimize water disruption to residents. The repair process would require that water be shutoff, followed by boil water advisories until further notice. In anticipation of this, Liggins sent the letter (as shown) to those who "could be" impacted by the work.
Read this letter carefully. In it, you'll notice that the letter states that a Boil Water Advisory (BWA) will be in effect starting 11/15/23.
Initial letter sent to potentially impacted water customers by East Petersburg Water
Timeline
The timeline moves quickly and has a lot of information, so we've broken it down as a brief visual.
For those who hate visuals:
The initial water department letter was sent in early November stating that residents in the area will be under a BWA starting 11/15/23. The letter did not specify that if one was impacted, they would receive a door hanger advising of the BWA.
The water department put BWA notices at houses impacted on 11/15/23.
The water department put door hangers at those same houses on 11/17/23 repealing the BWA.
This left a number of homes in the area who were boiling water from 11/15/23 (because of the letter) without any follow-up.
It wasn't until 11/27/23 that the borough sent out another door hanger to those customers advising that they were never impacted by the BWA.
Key Issues
Here are the key issues that have been identified through discussing the incident with community members and other borough representatives:
The saying "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" applies here. The letter sent to residents was done to help those potentially impacted plan for a water outage on that day. The issue: That letter is incomplete and misleading. If I received this letter, I would assume I'm boiling water starting on 11/15/23 until further notice. The only mention of a door hanger is to state that one would be left when water is safe to use without boiling. This is something that should be looked at internally and have borough manager approval before going out. Note: These letters are not required. The DEP only requires that those directly impacted by a BWA receive direct notification, which a door hanger satisfies that component. The letter is a local decision.
The water department didn't notify every person of the BWA being repealed on 11/17. Only those who received the red BWA door hangers were notified. The homes who received only a letter continued to boil water. In fact, at least two residents I have confirmed boiled water and/or bought several gallons of water for 12 days.
When questioned, the water department didn't have an answer of how to prevent this from happening in the future, other than they'll do better. I think that we all can agree that none of this was done purposefully, but it is obvious that there is not a procedure in place. In fact, when I asked if a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) existed for these types of events, I couldn't get a direct answer.
Brief workflow describing the two types of water customer in this situation (those who had water disrupted, those who did not).
The follow-up door hanger provided to those who only received a letter and boiled water for 12 days.
Final Thoughts
Councilperson Miller suggested that the water department should post BWA information and notices on the borough's website, as well as use social media and other channels to reach more residents. The Mayor agreed and urged the water department to take steps to avoid this situation in the future.
The full Council discussion on the topic can be accessed by clicking the play button on the audio file. The audio is approximately 12 minutes long.