Friday, September 18, 2015
YOUNGSTOWN
Letters are in the mail to the city water department’s 54,000 customers telling them water exceeded a maximum contaminant level for a chemical byproduct last month.
The water department mailed the letters Thursday, the same day the board of control agreed to pay $14,500 to Postal Mail Sort Ltd. of Youngstown from the department for postage.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency issued a “notice of violation” Aug. 20, which the city received by mail a few days later, requiring letters be sent to customers notifying them of high levels of total trihalomethanes, a chemical byproduct used for disinfecting water.
The EPA wrote the city that “the levels detected do not pose an immediate threat to [people’s] health. However, some people who drink water containing trihalomethanes in excess of the MCL – maximum contaminant level – over many years may experience problems with their liver, kidneys or central nervous system and may have an increased risk of getting cancer.”
Lab results from an Aug. 4 test of city water showed it had 89 parts per billion of total trihalomethanes (TTHM), city water officials said. The federal and state EPAs consider any amount more than 80 parts per billion to be a violation.
TTHM consists of chloroform, bromoform, bromodichloromethane and dibromochloromethane with chloroform being the only chemical that exceeded the limit at the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, Anthony Vigorito, its chief engineer, said two weeks ago.
MVSD sells bulk water to Youngstown, Niles and McDonald from Meander Reservoir. Youngstown and Niles then resell the water to other communities. Youngstown’s customers are in the city, Austintown, Boardman, Liberty, North Jackson and Canfield city.
The city has 30 days from receipt of the certified letter from the EPA to notify its customers by mail.
“We were under a 30-day time limit, so we couldn’t send it out with all bills,” said Ted Szmaj, the water department’s operations supervisor. “The letters were ready, but we had to get the postage component approved” by the board of control.
Under state law, the city tests quarterly for TTHM. It opens fire hydrants and takes samples of about 2 to 3 ounces that are sent to EPA-approved labs.