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.