- We call the meeting of the utility services board for June 1st, 2026 to order. We have several good
- agenda items today and let's get started with petitions and communications from the public. Yes. And
- if you'd like to come on up, you're welcome to come to the podium and state your name for the record.
- Good evening. My name is Mary Ann Faday and my husband and I have owned the property at 501 East Cottage
- Grove for well since 1992 and Lately we've had this horrible Flooding in the basement. I mean like excrement
- and everything coming out of the commode and all that sorry I mean we've never had that kind of issue
- in all these years and so I I know something has changed I just don't know what and I would like
- Dave Kerber, our property manager, to discuss his findings, because we live in Carmel now, and Carmel
- Westfield. So he's been taking care of the damage and keeping me apprised of it, and sent videos. I
- know he sent some videos to some of you. And really, we need to do a lot of cleanup. Well, cleanup's
- been done, but the repair, damages and everything. And we need to know when we can start and what
- what's involved and when we can get an answer about whether or not the city is responsible for this
- or not. So I'll let Dave talk about it. Yes. I don't think I've emailed any of you directly. I've been
- emailing. I didn't recognize any of the names. But with this has happened now about seven times this year.
- We just started taking over the property in August, so I can't speak too far to before that. And they've
- just been smaller little backups that have been sort of under control. This last one on the 20th, which
- sort of prompted us coming in here today. I sent videos to the three folks that we had. I can't get
- all the names. Phil, James, and somebody else.
- colleges only anyways this was this was more an introductory was recommended we come bring it up to
- the board here to kind of get the ball rolling because something has changed if it didn't happen before
- and now all of a sudden it's back and anyways the tenants have had to move out we had to rip the entire
- place apart so there are some definite losses there and the biggest thing for us is we want to know
- that moving forward this isn't going to keep backing up the way it is there was a gentleman that came by
- I do appreciate that in a truck, the truck with the camera on the side of it, which is awesome because
- it tells you what that truck is doing. But he said they weren't sure if they'd found a chunk of concrete
- in the storm line. They didn't know if it was fiber optic lines that had punched through the storm and
- somehow they were connected. They didn't know when they were out there the other day. They thought maybe
- there had been a water main that had been busted
- which would be amazing to me because that corner has been a symphony of sump pumps for over 10 years,
- and maybe they did find that piece of it because now the sump pumps have all stopped since they were
- out last week, so I think that could be a piece of it. Somebody else when we had called in said that
- it could be because the capacity of it is less because everything's being lined as opposed to replaced,
- and so you'd start factoring all these in with the new things being built. Anyways, something has changed
- to the point that
- It flooded. They've all moved out. We've had to rip the whole place apart. And we kind of want to, before
- we go putting it all back together, have some concrete answer as to is somebody looking at it? Because,
- you know, our last few emails, nothing, we haven't heard anything back. We recognize it's just one unit.
- You know, it's one house. It's not a big old building. They offered us a check valve. But to their point,
- Check valve makes essentially the four units there completely inoperable when it rains. Nobody could
- use the water at that point because you can't. It basically just shuts the door on it. So I recognize
- none of you guys have answers here today. And we're just putting it on the radar. But we've got about
- a two-month run here, obviously, before the next group comes in. And we just want to know that something's
- being done so that we don't have this situation again. So yeah.
- Go ahead, sure. So just a fact. I'm also concerned about being compensated for this, because it's not
- our fault. Everything in the house has been up to speed. We've done everything we're supposed to do,
- the plumbing and everything. So now, it sounds like it's a city issue, but I just don't know. I just
- would like to know if we could be at least compensated for the damages, because they're getting up into
- the thousands now.
- Anyway, thank you for listening. Great. We appreciate you coming by, because it's always good for us
- to be as responsive as we can to our customers. And sometimes for us to know where our issues are are
- a good thing for the board. Mary Ann, could you spell your last name for me? I need to get that for
- the record. F is in Frank, A, D, like David, A, E, like Edward.
- And David, what's your last name? K-E-R-B-E-R. OK. I got 501 East Cottage Grove. And it's a single family
- home or? Well, it's a single family home that at some point in time, you would know better than me that
- there's efficiencies on the back of it. But essentially, the original house is still there.
- But the previous owner, when we bought it, had already put three efficiencies attached to the back of
- the house. So essentially the kitchen window above the sink and all that was closed and three efficiencies
- backed on it. It's been there a while. It's not a rebuilt. So I mean, that happened when we bought it
- in 1992. So I don't know how much earlier he had done that, but that's how we found it.
- What's the nearest cross street there? It's at Dunn and East Cottage Grove. Where? Dunn? Dunn. So just
- north of Penn Street. It's right on the corner of the intersection. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of challenge
- to it. You stand there, there's a hill coming down from all, you know, we don't know if it's the storm
- water is, I mean, you open the lid and it is a whitewater rapids in the sewer system, so.
- Either the sewer system is getting inundated with storm water or people are pumping the water in there.
- I mean, I think it's probably a whole bunch of different factors, but it's definitely a big change from
- what it has been. Obviously, they hadn't had this happen before. One thing that could help is if you
- notice any particular events or times that this happens now pretty much any time we get a rain of about
- An inch and it does I mean again that that that little spot I think it's just a natural drainage point.
- But to where you know it won't rain for 48 hours and those pumps are still I mean it's just every pump
- in that neighborhood is.
- pumping water into the streets. Well you said it was affecting one unit but have have you confirmed
- other issues in neighboring properties or have you spoken to any of the neighboring property owners
- about this? I know that a few months ago Horn in the property next door they were having plumbing issues.
- You know the first thing we did we had
- Paul Young plumbing came out. They camored the whole thing confirmed that there was no no first time
- we did it We thought it was just a blockage whatever the next time it rained it happened again They
- came back out and they said we put the camera down there nothing in it clear all the way I mean they
- ran the thing a hundred whatever plus feet couldn't find anything they were into the into the main So
- there's nothing jumping out as to is an obstruction like I say the gentleman who had come out and I
- wish I had gotten his name. We had a lot happen in that day, but that Friday after it happened,
- the 22nd. Said that he had spent the day before, and they were looking at Cameron. He couldn't tell
- if there was a random chunk of concrete that had gotten into the system that could be restricting flow.
- We had a number of laterals that were punched through with the whole fiber optics up and down 10th Street.
- It took about a year to rear their head.
- So anyway, so I don't know. It could be a whole bunch of different things. And I know that they had
- started to look into it. We just haven't heard anything. And this rose now to the level of everybody
- moved out. So well, we weren't really livable. So we just want to make sure that. So we lost rent and
- plus the cost of repair. Yeah. Well, thank you both. Sure.
- I guess the biggest thing is we recognize you don't have any answers today, but in terms of moving forward
- to be able to understand what's happening, should we provide you information or should we reach out
- to somebody? Since we've got your names and addresses and what we'll do is talk with staff and make
- sure that we're continuing to check and figure this out. So we will
- Guarantee we'll get back in touch, because we realize that the cycle of things that happen, you may
- have new residents in August you'd like. And we like to get these things fixed. We'd like to have a
- result for you. Of course. Do you have an answer this week, this month, something? Just know what to
- do. Well, we'll do our best. It's hard for me today to tell you where we are in the schedule.
- Do you need my home address? Because that's the real problem. They've got it with him. Oh, okay.
- Thank you. Thanks for coming in. We appreciate it. We'll get to work on it. Thank you. Okay, next item
- on the agenda is the approval of minutes from
- the meeting on May 18th. We had a chance to take a look at those. Rachel, you know, one thing I would
- might help us a little bit as I was reviewing them. When Kevin White's presenting, we might want to
- put Kevin White and even though you've got
- staff member. Well, even if we put K in, it doesn't work. And a lot of people call me Kevin or Kurt
- or whatever, you know, so you might just want to because I don't want to take credit for all of his
- good work. Might help a little bit because years from now, we'll know the difference, right? I'll be
- doing something else. Who knows where, right? Okay.
- Any other additions or corrections to the minutes? I entertain a motion to approve. I move we approve
- the minutes of the last meeting. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion
- carries. All right. Next is standard invoices. And we've got several pages of those.
- looks like our total is $619,546.79. Any questions on standard invoices for these couple of weeks? I
- have a curiosity. I know we paid us to have our sledge hauled, and maybe I asked this before, but where
- does it go? It goes to the Sycamore. Sycamore?
- Thank you. And another one for fun. UV disinfection. I've heard of that being used for swimming pool
- water and things like that. Are we using this for wastewater drinking water systems or all the above?
- Just for wastewater at a blucher pool. Just to help clean up the fluid? Yes. Cool. Thanks. Before it
- gets discharged. Yes. Thank you. All right. Good questions.
- Any other? We're just looking up where is Sycamore Landfill. So at Terre Haute, Pimento. Yeah. We're
- all over trash cans. OK. Thank you. That's a long haul. OK. Other questions for standard invoices? I
- move that we approve the standard invoices. Second. OK. We've been moved and seconded. Any
- further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- All right, motion carries. Next is utility bills. And looks like our total utility bills for this pay
- period is $20,425.39. Any questions? All right. I move that we approve the utility bills. Second.
- It's been moved and seconded to approve utility bills. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye.
- Opposed? Alright, utility bills are approved. Next are wire transfers, fees and payroll in the amount
- of $570,367.13. I move that we approve the wire transfers. Second. Alright, moved and seconded for approval.
- Any other discussion?
- All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. The wire transfers are approved. Next is customer refunds
- in the amount of $984.43. I move that we approve the customer refunds. Second. Okay it's been moved
- and seconded to approve customer refunds. Any other discussion?
- favor say aye opposed all right refunds are approved next on our agenda is the approval of consent agenda
- items and we'll ask our director to give us that rundown I'm presenting tonight's consent agenda totaling
- forty three thousand four hundred eighty seven dollars and twenty five cents
- First contract is with SET Environmental Inc. for $8,393.62 for the transportation and disposal of two
- 275-gallon totes of hydrofluorosilic acid at Monroe Water Treatment Plant. Next is with Crown Equipment
- Corporation DBA Crown Lift Trucks for $4,429.63 to modify the crown fork truck tilt at the Dillman Wastewater
- Treatment Plant.
- Next is with First Appraisal Group Inc. for $2,500 for Copper Beach Lift Station Appraisal. Next is
- with GRIP Incorporated for $14,923 for TOC Monitoring System at Monroe Water Treatment Plant. Next is
- with GRIP Incorporated for $13,241 for Water Quality Monitoring Analyzers for Basins 1 and 2 at the
- Monroe Water Treatment Plant.
- Is there any member who wishes to consider one or more of these items individually? Hearing none, if
- there is no opposition, these items will be approved as recommended by staff. Hearing no opposition,
- the consent agenda is approved. The consent agenda is approved. Next item on the agenda is the
- Requesting approval for an on-call service agreement with Marshall Security LLC, James Hall. Hi,
- James Hall, Assistant Director of TND.
- This on call agreement is with Marshall security, but they do more traffic control. They have traffic
- control devices and things of that nature. And so we're just looking to have an on call vendor that
- we can go to without having to do a contract every time to kind of rent some of that stuff. We keep
- some of it in house, some of it disappears. And so we have to get new stuff. And sometimes we need items
- that we may not really want to purchase and need someone to come out and set up. So that's what this
- is about. So James, this is
- Temporary equipment as opposed to personnel correct and they set it set it up to they set up the the
- systems as well. OK. All right. Any questions for James on this agreement with martial security?
- All right, I know that we approve the contract with martial security. It's been moved in second due to
- approve the on-call service agreement, Marshall Security. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye.
- Aye. Opposed? All right, motion carries. Thank you, James. Next, and you're staying right where you
- are, for the approval of an on-call service agreement with Grace Ann Flanagan doing business as Dirt
- Hounds Escavation LLC.
- So again, just another on-call contract to have in our kind of people to call to help us with hydro
- excavation or other digging operations that we may need in case a piece of equipment goes down or we
- just need extra stuff. We have at least two vendors and we like to have three for on-call services to
- be able to spread that out and call as we need to. Any questions for James on this one?
- Any? I move that we approve the contract with Gracie and Finnegan. Second. Been moved and seconded.
- All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right motion carries. Next is the request for approval of a
- service agreement with First Appraisal Group and Chris is here to discuss that one.
- Good evening. Chris Wheeler with City Legal and this item before the board is for a service agreement
- with First Appraisal Group Incorporated who will do appraisals of the real estate located at and around
- Lake Griffey and at and around Lake Lemon. It's a first attempt at trying to get a professional appraisal
- done to determine what
- the value of our real estate is out at those lakes. Just to understand what we own primarily and then
- it very likely will inform the utility department and this board on what steps we may take in the future
- with regards to our ownership of those lakes. Primarily because we do not use them anymore as a water
- source and so it's hard to continue to justify ownership
- when it really isn't providing any benefit to our customers. We continue to incur expenses in managing
- those properties, and those expenses are becoming challenging for us to justify, I think. It's quite
- possible that we may ultimately decide that we want to keep those water sources just in case as an emergency
- backup, but at the moment, they're not even a viable emergency backup.
- Step one, we thought, would be to determine what we think the value of the properties are, at least
- to have an appraisal done so we can get a ballpark figure and then come back to the board and discuss
- more detailed what it is we think we might like to do with the properties. So that's the main reason
- behind this contract. It is for both lakes. And we would ask the board to approve this agreement so
- that we can move forward. Thank you, Chris. If I remember correctly,
- We, of course, own the bodies of water. But do we own parcels that surround those bodies as well? Does
- this appraisal include those parcels as well? It includes the dry land and the lake bed. OK. Yeah. So
- we're trying to be very all-encompassing with the properties that we do own. We appreciate it, since
- we've been talking about doing this. So we're getting there. Questions?
- More questions for Chris? Yeah. When you present the findings on this, assuming we approve it, can you
- also bring the information on what are costs ongoing related to maintaining those properties? Yes, I'm
- not sure. That might be a Matt Havy task. Yeah, that's anyone really. I guess that's not a question
- for you, but that would be helpful. Staff has heard your request.
- We'll try to make that be part of the overall presentation. Certainly, we're going to want to know those
- things, right, as we're trying to decide what's best for the utility moving forward. A lot of pieces
- to this one, including the interest that Parks and Rec has. Including the interest that Parks and Rec
- has, yes. All right, other questions, discussion?
- the contract with first appraisal group. Second. Moved and seconded. Any other discussion? All right
- all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. All right item nine on our
- agenda is to request request approval of the amendment to the agreement with electric plus incorporated and
- Shane Ayres here. Hello, Shane Ayres, Monroe Water Treatment Plant Superintendent. So this item is for
- the amendment to the contract for electric plus. Basically, we found out that the original generator
- we rented was a little too small. So we're going to have to go with a bigger unit and it's going to
- add another 5,000 to the
- So shame to clarify, this was the exercise you were planning to do a few weeks ago. But when you got
- ready to do it, you found out you needed bigger stuff to make this work. Yes, sir. OK. And so we have
- a new total to get to that bigger piece of wood. Right. Yep.
- OK. Questions for Shane? All right. So next week. But we still don't have all the pieces in order. There's
- a lot of Duke and Potomac and Nargis. We've all got to get together to get a date. And that depends
- also on if there's a bunch of storms.
- If there's storms, then their schedule gets pushed back, and then we kind of fall to the wayside. But
- a lot of moving parts. Yep. Thanks. Thank you. That's a good thing to do. Keep at it. Right. Appreciate
- it. All right. Anything else? All right. I move we approve the contract with Electric Plus. Second.
- It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- All right, motion carries. And item 10 is approval of the memorandum of understanding between CBU and
- City Engineering. Assistant Director Peden will join us. Good evening, Phil Peden, Engineering. So this
- is MOU with City Engineering for the South Roger Street project.
- They're moving forward with but I think due to some of their funding limitations that they couldn't
- do all the storm waters kind of an optional possibility for this location. It's at Dodds and Rogers
- where there's been some ongoing storm issues with that Northeast property.
- corner there and so we had the opportunity to add it to their project under their design and construction
- and it made sense so that's what the MOU is to cover the cost of that additional storm sewer. Two new
- inlets and 130 linear feet of storm sewer pipe and the paving to go with it? Yeah so you got all the
- incidentals with that to curb
- That all comes with it, yeah. Okay. Questions for Phil on this one? Okay. We approve the MOU between
- CBU and City Engineering. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. Do we approve this MOU? All in favor
- say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- Okay motion carries thank you. All right hey the annual 2026 water quality report is next on our agenda.
- Justin is here to go through it with us. Okay cool so last year as you may remember we went through
- a resolution that
- I would get to volunteer to come here and present the water quality report yearly. So one thing I just
- want to point out before we start this, this is the 2026 water quality report, but all this data that
- is in this report is from 2025. So this is encompassing from last year. And I will say moving forward,
- 2027, they are changing this a little bit. So this will be released twice a year instead of once a year.
- So it will just kind of shorten that
- gap between when we collect the data and then when it's presented to our customers. So every utility
- across the country is required to do this, and this is just as a transparency thing. So everybody that's
- drinking water from a public utility knows what's in the water, and then they can make their decisions
- based on any health issues they have or what they deem responsible for their family. Noted on here,
- I do want to jump back just because
- I have these in my office and it's always kind of cool to look at. Just started in 1998 is when they
- passed the CCR regulations or the Consumer Confidence Report regulations. So the first one came out
- in 1999. So I have a copy of these in my office, which is always kind of fun to look back through. So
- that's our very first one there in 1999. You may be wondering if we paid an actor to be in that picture.
- That is not. That is our chemist, Craig Abbott, who is still with us as our chemist.
- And I just want to give Craig a shout out because he has helped with these reports since they started
- in 1999. He does a great job with collecting data throughout the year, doing the sampling as part of
- the sampling schedule, and then providing that information for this report. And then also on here, another
- cool one is 2004. You can see the picture there. That's actually when they're building the third basin,
- the newest sedimentation basin at the plant. So that's when that construction was starting.
- And then as part of the requirements, there needs to be an aspect of public notification. Now we put
- out press releases and social media and reach through our media friends. In the middle there, I hope
- you see the irony of that 2005 water quality report ad in the newspaper about our tap water with bottled
- water in the picture. I thought that was
- good one and then just some of the some of the other reports there from the last couple years since
- this is a yearly document. So this report is composed where we're showing anything that's measured in
- our water as a contaminant. If it shows up in testing it doesn't matter if it's above or below any of the
- The limits are the MCLs that are set by the EPA. If it shows up in testing through one of the labs we
- use, mostly Eurofins, they send our results directly to IDEM so we don't get them back between that.
- So they're reported from the lab and they have to go into this report. This is just the first page of
- the full list of all these contaminants, which is 96 contaminants currently.
- It changes a little bit based on if you're a surface water source or a groundwater source. Us being
- surface water, it's a little bit different. Then it just shows you also the schedule of what type of
- contaminant it is. I always thought this was a good chart because it tells you what some health effects
- are, where these contaminants are coming from, and then both the MCL, which is what we use as a cutoff
- for violations, and then also the public health goal.
- I've never understood why the public health goals are not all zero, but there is a treatment aspect
- in that and a monetary aspect in that that they have to set something that's feasible for utilities
- as well. So there is, that list goes on. I have it if you want to copy, just shoot me an email, I can
- send it to you. It's a fun list to have, I think. So this is just going back to the resolution that
- we passed last year.
- why I'm here and what we're going to chat very briefly about. So just talk about all the contaminants
- that are listed, anything that deviates from the EPA maximums, which I'm here to tell you that we are
- within range of all the contaminants that were detected in our water. So there's very few changes from
- last year, which is a good thing because consistency in water treatment is always a positive for us,
- nothing new popping up to cause issues. And then just some of the
- parameter set by Health and Human Services, which I think we all know is probably the floor that we're
- talking about, which is why this started last year, but we will touch on that briefly. And then just
- very quickly at the end, just some of the stuff that we monitor looking forward to potential changes
- from the EPA as far as what might be regulated. I will point out last fall, if you go back and look at the
- Indiana code. A lot of our water regulations have been repealed from the state of Indiana, and now we
- are just deferring back to the EPA regulations from the federal government. So IDEM has removed a lot
- of that from their IAC, so we just go right from the EPA now. So some of the language in our document
- has changed, but that's just slight differences between what IDEM had in their language and what the EPA has.
- So this is the front page of our report this year. And like I said, if you went back and compare this
- to last year, a lot of it's very similar, especially on the right-hand side. A lot of that is just the
- health effects language, what populations may be concerned with different contaminants, and some information
- on who to contact or where to get more information online. One that I'm proud of, and Shane and his
- group should also be proud of, in the top left are violations for this year. There's none. We didn't
- have any violations last year.
- As you may recall, the last two before that, we did have some smaller violations. One was not as small,
- but none from last year, which I'm very proud about. And then below that, we also put our deficiencies
- from our last sanitary survey. Those two are being addressed currently in the project that is ongoing
- at Monroe Treatment Plant, and we're hoping completed, hopefully late fall, or late summer, but I put
- on there in the fall for those to be completed.
- And then right below that is our PFAS and UCMR testing that was also on there last year, but we had
- all non-detects, so we had good results there, so that has not changed. Another one I wanted to point
- out on the lead side on the very right, we also added on there anybody that's interested in having their
- water tested for lead. We added that to the CCR this year because we are now offering that as a free
- service to our customers.
- I think we talked about that briefly when I was here for a service line project, but we are still doing
- that. We've gone through about 100 residences so far, and we're basically a team of two doing it, so
- we're making good progress. We just want to put that on there so people are aware of it and they can
- get signed up if they would like. Yes, absolutely. For the PFAS testing, this says it was based on samples
- collected between 2023 and 2024. Yeah. Is that just a lag?
- It's when they do different size utilities throughout this testing schedule. So some of the smaller
- utilities. So it's not going to be tested every year, maybe? Not every year for a finished drinking
- water. But as a utility, we are testing our source water more often just to see if we see any changes
- in our source water. We know that could be an issue down the road. Thank you. So then we can move on
- to the actual contaminant list.
- So this is the list that will be on the back of the water quality report. Looks very similar to the
- last couple years. So I will point out the bottom there in that kind of purplish pinkish color that
- always has how many contaminants we have in our water. This says 16. You will note if you compare that
- last time it said 13.
- Not all of these are tested yearly. That part in the middle of the radioactive contaminants, last time
- we tested that was in 2021. We only have to do that every six years because we are a surface water source.
- Groundwater sources do that more often. So all that data stays the same from 2021. And then, if you
- go one more, Rachel, I just wanted to highlight really quickly. These are what has changed since last
- year's report. So that one on the very top there are total coliform bacteria. That's one of the new
- ones that's added.
- Last year, we collected over 1,000 samples. We had one come back positive for total coliform. And a
- lot of times when that happens, it can be just if when you're sampling, you get your hands on the inside
- of the bottle or on the lip of it. As much as you wash your hands, you're probably going to have a little
- bacteria on them. Funny story, one of our sampling stations used to have a frog living in it and was
- causing us a lot of positive samples until we kind of realized that there was some organic matter in
- the station.
- You know, over a thousand samples collected, only one positive. No violation there, but that's why it's
- on there this year because we did have that one positive. Another reason that there's an additional
- contaminant this year, IDEM made us separate out our radium-226 and 228. It used to be just combined.
- It's still on there as a combined number, but they made us separate it out this year. Atrazine came
- back this year. It was the first time since 2022. It's always a very low level.
- For atrazine, you can see it's 0.1 PPB. The threshold for testing is 0.09. So we were just barely above
- that. But as I said, it was there in 2022 and it was only in one of our four samples last year. So it's
- always kind of right on that line. And that one's a runoff from herbicides using agricultural purposes.
- The other changes at the bottom are lead and copper. We did do our annual sampling, or actually our
- tri-annual sampling last year.
- So our 90th percentile for lead and copper both changed a little bit. Our lead went from 3.3 to 5.1.
- So that went up a little bit. Copper dropped a little bit, but both are still well below the action
- level. We did have one site in our lead sampling that was above the action level, so we do have to include
- that on here. And that just leads us to believe that they probably have internal plumbing that's lead,
- as well as a lead service line, which we will be addressing moving forward. And then the other one on
- there, the fluoride.
- And as I pointed out, this is 2025, so this is when we were not feeding the fluoride. So there is a
- range part of this table that just is below this on the actual report, just because it doesn't all fit
- on one page here. So the range will say the low side is zero because this is just all naturally occurring
- fluoride from last year. But I did put a note on there that we are currently feeding fluoride and have
- been steadily since January. So our running average right now is 0.65. So right between that 0.6, 0.7
- goal that we have for fluoride.
- And then, yes? So the ideal goal there says four parts per million for fluoride. But your goal, am I
- reading that right? Yeah. Yeah. But you just said you were looking for a lower. Yeah, that's a misprint.
- We're going to fix that. And that's why this is not our final report. So yeah, you're correct there.
- That's not the ideal goal for fluoride. I'll have to go back and fix that. Thank you.
- Yeah, the CDC has a writer I think point seven is kind of the upper side of where they and then the
- MCL of four there There's a secondary MCL for fluoride at two parts per million as well But four is
- the main one Last year, this is all from last year. Yes, it'll be a little higher now The next one we
- put out will be higher. Yeah. Yep
- And then some of the source water monitoring we do, as I mentioned, the PFAS, part of the UCMR, but
- we also just monitor that. You may assume there are some changes probably occurring with PFAS in drinking
- water, unfortunately. They're cutting back some of the regulations from what was proposed and also pushing
- the deadline back, which pushing the deadline back will probably help some utilities. Perchlorates,
- another one that's on the EPA's
- radar. We were just trying to test that to get ahead of that. We are well below the lowest threshold
- that they might implement for that. And then microplastics is another one that we're looking to testing
- because it hasn't been about four or five years since we've done that. And then cyanotoxin, I just put
- that on there because we do that yearly just because the algae blooms. And as you know, blue-green algae
- can be an issue. And with that, if you have any questions or comments, I would be happy to hear. I think
- the water looks really tasty.
- Is there anything here that keeps you up at night or concerns you? From the contaminant standpoint,
- no. Lead and copper, that rule always keeps me up a little bit, just the more I think about it. Well,
- with the lead going up slightly, is that basically a byproduct of what service connections you decide
- to sample each year? And then that's just where your 90th percentile is, right? Yeah, so I had to go
- back through this past year and update all of our sampling locations. Previously,
- to the same locations that had been being used over and over, which was part of the rule. But a lot
- of those had seen service upgrades or internal plumbing upgrades, so they were just naturally gonna
- have lower concentrations. So we had to go back through and meet all these tier one sites again. How
- many do we have to sample service connections for lead of a system this size? I might've asked you that
- before. We run a reduced monitoring, so we had to do 30 locations once every three years as part of this.
- If you're non-reduced, 60 every year, which next year we're actually, when the new parts of that lead
- and copper go into effect, we have to go back to the normal sampling. So we're going to have to go back
- up to 60 and then do it every six months for two years. Nice to see the disinfection byproducts pretty
- consistent from last year as well. Yeah.
- Yeah that's one you know if you go on IDEM has a drinking water viewer everybody should know this you
- can go on and actually track all of our sampling that we do throughout the year for any utility. Our
- results always differ from theirs a little bit just because we sample more often than they require so
- they use four samples a year and we try to do every month. Last year we missed one or two months just
- because of budgetary reasons but we're back to sampling every month now.
- Just a couple of notes and comments. We have the violations and deficiencies, which awesome.
- We have none. Deficiencies of what is that from like IDEM inspection, a certain Indiana administrative
- code that they look at. So that came up in that inspection.
- the backwash tank at Monroe. There's an overflow port that comes out. Right now, when it comes out of
- the tank, it doesn't come all the way to the ground. It has to be within 12 to 18 inches of the ground
- to be screened at the bottom. So it just needs to be extended down to the ground. And then we have to
- put a secondary backwash pump in just in case something happens to the primary backwash pump. Oh, great.
- And I believe we have that pump on site or soon to be on site. Yeah.
- I don't know if it'd be helpful just for the public reading that to to maybe explain, you know, what
- those are violations or deficiencies of. I mean, I think it's kind of implied in the intro there as
- well. But and then I love the fact that at least
- Historically, we've not had PFAS detected. I think it's great that we highlight that. Is that a requirement
- that we would highlight that too if we tested for it under the? Yeah, so the UCMR rule, that's a requirement,
- ought to be on this document, which included, I think, 32 different PFAS contaminants as well as lithium.
- But I think that's something that we should definitely highlight, the public should know. And I don't
- know if it'd be helpful to, sometimes I hate using it, but calling it forever chemicals or something
- in the headlines so that maybe people
- put that connection to that. Not that, you know, if you use per and floral alkalonic acid or whatever
- it is, it might be quite long, but excellent job. Thank you so much for doing what you do. Any other
- questions? Other questions? No comments? Justin, you mentioned that the state deleted some requirements,
- so we now lean on the federal requirements.
- which were more favorable for the consumer, the states that are no longer around? In Indiana, they were
- basically the same anyways. There was just some language differences in them. But as far as the actual
- contaminants go, they're identical. Some states do have more stringent guidelines or regulations for
- drinking water. But the EPA rule is you can make them more stringent. You just can't make them less
- stringent than the federal government.
- So some states that have particular contaminants that are of issue, they might lower those a little
- bit. Indiana just kind of, they've always kind of followed the federal government's lead for these,
- but they just said no more confusion between the IAC and the EPA code, so they just got rid of it. So
- there wasn't a decrease in standards there? No. Okay. No, just a change in language basically. Great.
- Thank you. Yep. Any other questions?
- Well, thank you. I appreciate this and appreciate your continued work on all this. Thanks for your time.
- It's obviously a top priority for us to make sure that we're in excess of the requirements, right?
- I agree. And I will point out, nationwide, the average contaminants is around 25 in utilities drinking
- water. So we're well below that. 25 contaminants? Yeah.
- I think Cap mentioned to me that a lot of other municipalities have PFAS problems and we don't. Just
- don't go talking about our water being too good to like Indy because they're gonna want to come down
- and take it. We have very good source water. Just tell them the algae is a big issue.
- Indy has suggested they could be a customer before. Okay. Thank you. All right. Is there any old business
- from the board? Old business from staff? Okay. New business from the board? Yes.
- Maybe at the next meeting or at the first meeting where you have information that you communicate to
- us anything new about the property on Cottage Grove. Thank you. Anything else from staff? Did I ask
- that? New business from staff? We good? All right.
- We had any subcommittee reports since last meeting? Staff reports? Yeah. Just in this year, we just
- presented that annual water quality report, received its DSL license. And Alan Christie and Josh Wathen
- and TND earned their water collection licenses. And that is our staff report. Great. Thank you. Good deal.
- Any other petitions or communications from the public? Anyone else in attendance? Okay, I think that
- wraps up our meeting. We'll stand adjourned.