Bend fails to meet water treatment deadline

More than 21,000 city of Bend water customers will get a notice in the mail in coming days about the city’s failure to meet an Oct. 1 state deadline, set and extended years ago, to treat its water for the parasite cryptosporidium.

But city officials say the water is as safe as ever – and will be even safer when a $32 million water filtration plant goes online in early 2016.

The agreement with the Oregon Health Authority requires the notice to all water users, with updates every three months until the project is complete and the requirement is met, said Steve Prazak, the city’s water quality manager.

Federal regulations for cities to treat for cryptosporidium, which can cause gastrointestinal illness, arose from a major outbreak in 1996 that hit Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sickening some 400,000 people. And while levels of the parasite have been detected in Bend’s water on occasion, Prazak noted that no similar cases of illnesses have been reported in Bend.

Bend is in a “bilateral compliance agreement” with the Oregon Health Authority and will meet the April 15, 2016 deadline for putting its new water treatment plant online.

The city originally faced an October 2012 deadline to treat its water drawn from Bridge Creek, a tributary of Tumalo Creek, for the parasite, but that was extended two years at the city’s request.

The added delay came when newly elected city councilors in 2012 called for the city to again review an earlier decision to go with the costlier (by several million dollars) membrane filtration system, rather than a cheaper ultraviolet treatment option, said City Councilor Mark Capell.

“UV gives organisms a ‘bad sunburn, but doesn’t filter out or kill them,” Capell said. “It just basically makes them inactive. So the council chose to go with the membrane because even though it’s more expensive up front, in the long run it’s less expensive.”

The membrane filters can remove particles if a wildfire should break out in or reach the city’s watershed, Capell said, while “a UV system has to basically be thrown in the trash” and the city must turn to other water sources (presumably groundwater pumped from the underground aquifer.)

The other advantage of the membrane system, he said, is “if there are big rain events, or a herd of elk go through the watershed, we don’t have to quit using the water.”

Mayor Jim Clinton, a long-time critic of the city’s water projects as approved, took issue with much of what Capell said. He told NewsChannel 21 that for example, a wildfire in the watershed also would “quickly disable a membrane filtration plant,” though it could operate at a larger range of turbidity than UV.

“These unusual situations do not justify the enormous additional expense, and Bend has sufficient well-water capacity to get through these rare events,” Clinton said. “This very thing happened in a precautionary shutdown during the Two Bulls Fire.”

And he said the city council only voted once, 4-3, to approve the membrane filtration option.

Capell’s election foe, Nathan Boddie, also issued a critical statement on the notice Wednesday, saying the incumbent “has once again failed Bend and put our health and drinking water at risk.

“It looks like even after my opponent’s approach to choosing the Cadillac option on the project at residents’ expense, Bend is instead getting stuck with a broken-down jalopy,” Boddie claimed.

The water issue is related to, but separate from, the long legal battle over the city’s plans to replace decades-old pipelines carrying the surface water to the city. That project was delayed a year under a court order won by critics, and while part of the work is underway, it still faces legal challenges.

“The water treatment system can hook up to the old pipe,” if need be, Capell said.

Prazak said the city faces no fines from state or federal regulators due to the missed deadline, and the new one, of April 15, 2016, is part of the agreement moving forward.

“We worked with the state of Oregon so they wouldn’t administer an administrative order” to stop using the surface water, Prazak said.

Despite the water notice being sent to users, Capell said, “We still have some of the best water in the country, and the federal guidelines monitored by the state will be met.”

Here’s the information in the notice being sent Wednesday to Bend water customers:

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DRINKING WATER
Our water system recently violated a drinking water requirement. Although this is not an emergency, as our customers, you have the right to know what happened, what you should do, and what we are doing to correct this situation.

Cryptosporidium is a parasite that can cause gastrointestinal illness and may be in our raw water source. Currently, water from Bridge Creek is treated by the addition of chlorine to disinfect the water. Chlorine does not destroy Cryptosporidium. The City was required to provide a specified level of treatment to address Cryptosporidium by October 1, 2014. Because the City has not met the October deadline, we are required to notify our customers of this violation and provide information regarding potential risks.

What is being done?
The City is currently constructing a membrane filtration water treatment plant that removes the Cryptosporidium parasite and brings us into conformance with State and Federal treatment requirements. We expect to achieve this specified level of treatment by April 15, 2016. This plant will also remove silt and other particles to ensure that Bridge Creek provides a year round water source – even after a fire in the forested watershed.

Membrane Filtration will make Bend’s Bridge Creek water even better. Construction of this system will ensure Bend’s water customers will receive consistent, high-quality, award-winning drinking water year round. A photo can be seen on the back of this page that shows an example of the membrane filters to be used at the new treatment plant

Until the Water Treatment Facility is complete, the City will provide updates of the construction project on a quarterly basis. Another photo on the back of this page shows a current picture of the construction process.

What should I do?
There is nothing you need to do. You do not need to boil your water or take other corrective actions. However, if you have specific health concerns, please consult your doctor. If you have a severely compromised immune system, have an infant, are pregnant, or are elderly, you may be at increased risk and should seek advice from your health care providers about this water. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by Cryptosporidium and other microbial contaminants are available from EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.

What does this mean?
This is not an emergency. If it had been, you would have been notified within 24 hours.

Inadequately treated water may contain disease-causing organisms. These organisms include bacteria, viruses, and parasites which can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches.

These symptoms, however, are not caused only by organisms in drinking water, but also by other factors. If you experience any of these symptoms and they persist, you may want to seek medical advice.

Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.

For more information, please contact Steve Prazak, City of Bend Water Quality Manager, at (541) 317-3000.