The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has found the Melrose Water Supply Corporation water system to be in violation of monitoring and reporting requirements for the disinfectant level quarterly operating report. But water system officials contend that a waiver was requested after initial samples had to be abandoned, and they did not realize the waiver had not been granted.
"We've got all our samples in, but in November of last year, we weren't aware that the lab was going to be closed for the week of Thanksgiving," said Carl Dyes, water system operator. "We took samples on the 23rd or 24th of November, and since the lab was closed, we had to abandon those samples ... They were closed for the rest of the month and we took samples again on the 1st and 2nd of December for November and requested a waiver from TCEQ in Austin."
Dyes said they made telephone calls and sent letters to the TCEQ to check on the waiver, but when they didn't receive anything back, they "assumed that they had accepted the waiver."
Earlier this month, TCEQ sent a letter to Melrose Water Supply Corporation informing the water system that they were in violation of monitoring and reporting requirements for the disinfectant level quarterly report for the second quarter of 2009.
"Every system, depending on their population, has a number of samples that they have to collect each month," said John Schilderwachter, TCEQ team leader for the drinking water protection team.
Schilderwachter explained that the samples collected enable TCEQ to verify the quality of the water. State drinking water code requires that every public water system properly disinfect water before distribution and maintain acceptable disinfection residuals within the distribution system. It also requires the system monitor those disinfectant residuals at various locations throughout the distribution system, and report the results to the TCEQ on a quarterly basis. Failure to do so is considered a monitoring and reporting violation, according the state code.
"Every month, as we get those sample results in, most of those are still entered by hand, so it takes them a while to get those entered. But once those are entered, we run compliance," he said. "That's done in a database that will tell us whether or not that system submitted the right number of samples. Once we've done the check to make sure that the samples did indeed not come in, then most likely a notice of violation is sent out."
Violation notices, such as in the case of the one sent to Melrose Water Supply, informs the water company that it did not submit the correct number of samples, either for routine monthly samples or other specific samples.
"If this issue continues, where the system continues to not collect the right number or the right type of samples, then it could conceivably reach the level of enforcement, and that is, of course, after a few more letters and a lot more attempts at communication," Schilderwachter said. "We give any system plenty of opportunity to provide evidence that they did indeed do the right thing. We do our best to make sure our data is correct and send out letters appropriately."
Dyes said he was confident all the rest of the system's samples have been taken and are in place.
The Melrose Water Supply company operates under a seven member board of directors and serves the cities and communities of Chireno, Melrose, Oak Ridge, Sand Hill and Attoyac.
