Warnings Flood Inadequate Public Water Systems

By Pat Stith, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Jun. 25–The state has mailed the first in a stream of warnings to public water systems that don’t have certified operators, telling them they’re in violation of state law and giving them 90 days to shape up.

Letters went out Friday to 27 systems, and another 225 or so will likely receive a notice of violation later this summer.

The letters warn systems that if they don’t get properly trained operators, they could be fined $100 a day from the date of the letter.

Time will tell whether the government will follow through on the fines. In the past, the Division of Environmental Health’s Public Water Supply Section has fined water systems only as a last resort, and it has collected only about 25 percent of the fines it has levied.

Even so, the letters represent a sea of change in the division’s regulation of public water systems.

For years, it allowed systems operated by uncertified personnel to slide. Earlier this year, when The News & Observer began asking about operators, state officials could not say for certain which systems were run by properly trained operators and which were not. The division’s computerized records were so unreliable that officials turned to paper records of old inspections before concluding that at least 397 systems weren’t being properly supervised.

The Division of Environmental Health’s operators certification board started sending letters in April to systems suspected of not having an operator, asking for information. The letters reminded water systems that there is no grace period on being without a certified operator.

The list of suspect systems has slowly become shorter. Some have hired an operator; some have sent their operator to school and upgraded his or her qualifications.

“Since that time, you just can’t imagine the amount of work that we’ve done,” said Tony Arnold, education and training manager. “Not to say we’re there, but we’re so better off than we used to be.”

About half of the state’s almost 7,000 public water systems are required to have one or more certified operators, including all systems that treat their water. Having an operator who knows what is supposed to be done results in safer drinking water.

The number of systems suspected of being in violation stands at 252, including 99 that have not responded to the request for information.

On the board’s recommendation, Terry L. Pierce, the division director, sent a “Notice of Violation and Administrative Order” on Friday to some of the systems that did not respond to earlier letters asking for information. Most of them supply water to mobile home parks, but the list also includes a rest home, some subdivisions, and three small towns: Taylortown in Moore County, Dover in Craven County and Roper in Washington County.

The division’s old strategy was to wait until a system failed to test for contamination or until a test showed the water was contaminated. The new policy is to enforce the law requiring certified operators and to drastically reduce the lag time between the violation and — if it’s not corrected — the fine.

The Public Water Supply Section, which inspects public water systems, used to notify the certification board about systems that didn’t have operators only as a last resort, after it was unable to get compliance. Arnold said now the section routinely sends operator information to the board.

“We’ve got something in place now that’s very systematic, very smooth,” he said.

—–

Copyright (c) 2006, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.