City begins flushing program after TCEQ recommendation
After a Texas Commission of Environmental Quality May investigation resulted in two notice of violations, the TCEQ recommended the city of Graham establish a monthly hydrant flush in the older portion of town which the city has put into place.
According to TCEQ media relations specialist Brian McGovern, the city was initially investigated by the entity on May 15 which resulted in the TCEQ finding the city’s water dirty, but in compliance.
TCEQ sent an investigation report to a Graham resident on Sept. 6 and eventually was given to The Graham Leader. When the Leader approached the city for comment, City Manager Brandon Anderson said the city had not received the same report with all the information from the investigative report.
“Randy Ammons, who is the (TCEQ) area director, out of Lubbock, that covers the three regions out there: Lubbock, Amarlllo and Abilene. He just called me back.” Anderson said. “But, it is not common policy for TCEQ to provide the city with (the part of the report) that talks about the investigation and the levels, we have never seen and never been given. Typically, the policy is the private citizen is going to ask for it anyways, so they just go ahead and give it.”
Anderson added a city cannot improve if they are not provided with the same information a complainant is provided. He added he hopes to see a policy change where TCEQ begins providing the same information to cities as they do the complainant. However, the TCEQ has agreed to start providing the same information that for the city of Graham.
“The city received a notice of violation letter,” McGovern stated in an email, “The complainant received an investigation report. Texas Water Code § 5.177(b) requires the commission to notify the complainant regarding the status of the investigation at least quarterly until final disposition of the complaint for matters that are within TCEQ’s regulatory jurisdiction. Providing the investigation report to the complainant is one of the ways the TCEQ meets this requirement.”
According to the report, and confirmed by McGovern, the collected samples from May 15 were sent a to a laboratory to be tested. Results were received on June 18.
“The results were evaluated with a water quality model to determine if the water is corrosive or non-corrosive,” the report reads. “The results obtained from the model indicated the water at the city of Graham to have corrosive properties. In addition, pH values at all three locations were below 7.0, which is the secondary constituent level.”
McGovern said the city received a notice of violation on July 12 and had a compliance due date of Oct. 12. The city of Graham was deemed in compliance and the TCEQ violation was resolved on Sept. 3 after water collected during a July 8 investigation showed the water to no longer be corrosive.
“The corrosivity of the water was because the lake’s (the system intake) pH was low because of the amount of rain we got,” Public Works Director Randall Dawson said. “When the pH comes in low and then the chemical process lowers the pH level even more. We add sodium hydroxide to it to raise the pH back up, but based on our infrastructure we can’t add it fast enough to get the pH back up. So, it is a slow process. With the amount of rain we had it took awhile to get the pH up throughout the whole system.”
The TCEQ recommended the city begin a monthly program during the additional comments section of the report.
“It is recommended the system establish a flushing program for the older portion of town where the system still has cast iron mains,” the report reads. Dawson said the city of Graham has implemented a flushing program and was something they had already been looking into.
“We have already been flushing based on, over the past few years we had a few more complaints on discoloration,” Dawson said. “Most of them are all metallic lines, so we have just started flushing. We have actually started putting in some flush valves that automatically flush on the farthest end of the system. We have three in service now. We currently digging up to put one in and then we have ordered some more.”
Dawson added the city has begun replacing water lines as the money is available and they have started on Pecan Street where the line was put in over 60 years ago.
“We are going to make an impact with what we can right now with just the crews that we have,” Anderson said. “We would love to make a bigger step, but at this time with the uncertainty still with the wholesale water dispute, we really can’t figure out how to budget moving forward. We are waiting on that and there should be a ruling on that in November.”
Anderson and Dawson encourage any resident who are having problems with their water quality to call City Hall at 940-549-3324, so they can flush their lines and attempt to resolve the issue.
For the rest of the story, see the Saturday, Sept. 28 edition of The Graham Leader.
