Oskaloosa City Manager Discusses Oskaloosa Water Advisory

Oskaloosa City Hall

Oskaloosa City Hall

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Oskaloosa and Beacon residents have been under a boil advisor after the water towers in Oskaloosa were effectively drained when a system malfunction at the pumping station failed to alert staff to the situation.

In a Freedom of Information Act request to the City of Oskaloosa, Oskaloosa News obtained emails from Oskaloosa Water Department General Manager Chad Coon to the Oskaloosa City Manager Michael Schrock and the Oskaloosa City Council in an email received at 1:51pm. That email was the first indication to anyone inside city government that an issue had taken place.

In the email, Coon says that the high service pumps “were locked out and could not pump water to the water towers. Normally there is an alarm system in place that will dial out and notify staff after hours. This system failed unbeknownst to staff. Therefore, no one was notified of the issue and the water level in the two towers continued to drop. At 6:50 AM the south tower showed 0.0 feet of water in the bowl of the tower. There was still water in the standpipe, but that level is not quantifiable. It is possible that the pressure in our distribution system fell below 20psi as a result.”

“Staff was in to work at the plant just before 7:00 AM and noticed the issue and was working to resolve the problem with the pumps to get them back up and running. Chlorine tests taken and recorded that showed we had appropriate levels of chlorine in our water for proper disinfection. The operator was able to get the pumps turned back on, but there was still a period of time where the south tower showed 0.0 feet of water in the bowl of the tank. It took approximately 20 minutes of pumping before the south tower showed a level above 0.0 feet of water.”

Coon says in closing to city officials, “You will undoubtedly receive calls as a result of this issue. While we believe that the water remains safe to drink, we are advising residents that before they drink their water they will need to boil it and follow the procedures as outlined in the advisory. We expect to have lab results both Wednesday and Thursday from the testing. Given that the results all come back negative, with the delivery of Thursday’s results the advisory can be lifted and notice will be made when that occurs.”

In a response to Coon, Schrock asked “What is the industry standard on how long it takes to notify the public? At this point the problem was discovered at 7:00AM and the public is being notified more than eight hours after the fact. A lot of water has been consumed since 7AM.”

In an interview with Oskaloosa News on Wednesday morning, Oskaloosa City Manager Michael Schrock spoke about that time frame in alerting the public to the situation. “In my position as the manager, trying to coordinate with the water department to understand exactly what happened, how we can help spread the word to the community. We understand that the problem occurred at 7am, and received notice in the afternoon. We as staff, I think we received notification at approximately 2 o’clock in the afternoon. We started to disseminate information amongst council and everyone else. We certainly want to understand the process.”

“We were in the chain of information, just like the rest of the community,” said Schrock. “I think one of the things we want to understand is what policies exist for notification and protocol.”

On Tuesday evening, the Emergency Management facility located along G Avenue West sprang to life as CERT Team members, Emergency Management and Oskaloosa Fire Department personnel worked to make room for an incoming shipment of bottled water.

Mahaska County Emergency Manager Jamey Robinson said that the initial shipment of water, 20 pallets of bottled water, came in as a donation from Fareway. Hy-Vee also delivered water on Wednesday. The distribution for that water was planned for public facilities like the Mahaska County Courthouse, Oskaloosa City Hall, Mahaska Health Partnership, the schools and nursing homes in the community, along with law enforcement and fire department. “We’re going to make sure they have what they need to continue to provide those services to the citizens.”

Those places were chosen to receive the water because of their need to be open for the public, and boiling water at those locations wouldn’t be an option. Individuals asking for the bottled water were advised to boil their tap water within their home for personal use.

Robinson said that his office will continue to work with the Oskaloosa Water Department and Public Health services to make sure information is available to residents.

John Sterns, Grocery Manager at the Oskaloosa Fareway store stated that, “We knew there was going to be a need. Fareway has done this before, where we’ve distributed water to the town.”

Oskaloosa residents shared their thoughts about the boil advisory and how it’s impacted their lives. Anna Mae Schaefer shared, “Hasn’t been horrible… My kids are just drinking more milk of juice, and the occasional bother of water. We boiled a big pot of water to use for washing dishes and brushing teeth. Personally, I’m not smelling or feeling the difference- so I showered with it today. Honestly, I’ve just been humbled a bit because we SO take the convenience and availability of our clean water for granted. It’s made me appreciate it more.”

Carol Dunlavy added, “It’s kind of like camping in your house paper plates bottled water and boiling water to do dishes.”

Posted by on Apr 20 2016. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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