Authority racing against time

By Tom Davidson
The Herald

GREENVILLE November 12, 2007 12:02 am

— Greenville Water Authority is racing against time to get the town’s latest water emergency behind it, the town’s mayor and authority chairman said Sunday.
As people do their best to cope with day five of a boil water alert spurred by fears that the water may be contaminated with an intestinal parasite, Greenville Water Authority employees are working to make sure the water plant’s filtration system is working properly.
“It’s going to be a horserace,” to get the boil water notice lifted before Thanksgiving, Mayor Dick Miller said. Miller also chairs the authority’s governing board.
Last week, a test the state Department of Environmental Protection performs every five years sounded alarm bells, Miller said.
Untreated water from the Shenango River tested positive for giardia — an intestinal parasite found in human and animal fecal matter.
Tests on the water treated by the borough’s plant were inconclusive, so the advisory was issued, Miller said.
Authority workers spent Sunday sanitizing one of the system’s four water filters, Miller said. Before the alert is lifted all four have to be cleaned.
Each filter takes more than a day to take apart, clean and put back together — a process that will make lifting the notice before Nov. 21 — tough, Miller said.
The work will cost the authority about $40,000, he said.
The authority board meets Wednesday and is expected to discuss the issues, including if water bills should be discounted because of the problem.
Miller said he also plans to recommend the board form an independent task force to look into how the authority handled the problem and if it could have been averted.
This is the second extended water emergency in the borough in five years. In October 2002 there were major pump problems at the town’s treatment plant that resulted in a lengthy boil water notice.
Until the latest problem is fixed, water authority customers must boil water used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes and preparing food. Bring water to a boil and let it boil for a minute.
The water is safe for showering and bathing as long as it’s not swallowed, said Stacy Kriedeman, a spokesperson for the Department of Health, which has received no reports of illness related to the water in Greenville.
For more information, call the Department of Health at 1-877-PA-HEALTH, the water authority at 724-588-4340, the EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 800-426-4791 or visit DEP’s Web site at www.depweb.state.pa.us and enter the keyword “public notification.”