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Council passes water ordinances
Free bottled-water distribution continues at community center
By PETER H. MILLLIKEN
SEBRING
Only 30 of 618 residential water samples from village water system customers tested since Jan. 21 had a lead level above the federal limit of 15 parts per billion, village Manager Richard D. Giroux told council Monday.
Giroux was reporting the same numbers as an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency news release issued.
Giroux also reported that 220 pallets containing 440,000 bottles of water had been distributed through Friday, with 50 pallets now on site at the Sebring Community Center, where free bottled-water distribution is continuing this week.
Giroux and Mayor J. Michael Pinkerton thanked the many donors of bottled water who came forward.
“It’s really heartwarming to see, when you have a problem, the way the community has dug in and really helped each other out,” the mayor said.
To date, the village has spent $60,100 on expenses related to the lead emergency in the village water system, including hiring a new temporary Class 3 water-treatment operator, engineering, bottled-water purchases and water testing, Giroux said.
Councilman James J. Harp said he wants a representative of the Ohio EPA to address council and answer residents’ questions concerning the water emergency.
“The EPA has been in contact with my office probably 30 to 40 times a day,” Giroux said, adding that he’ll relay Harp’s request to OEPA immediately.
Council passed two ordinances pertaining to the lead emergency in the village water supply.
One approves the temporary hiring of Donis Alpeter, a Class 3 water-treatment plant operator with 38 years of experience, as a full-time $30-an-hour operator.
Alpeter’s service as an independent contractor, which began last week, is for 40 hours a week for 45 days, subject to renewal.
Alpeter replaces James V. Bates, against whom the Ohio EPA launched license revocation proceedings and who has been barred by the agency from serving as a treatment operator of record.
The agency accused Bates, of Salem, of performing his duties negligently or incompetently and in a manner that endangered public health and of “submitting misleading, inaccurate or false reports.”
Bates has emphatically denied falsifying reports.
The other ordinance approved a $23,000 contract with W.E. Quicksall & Associates Inc. engineers of New Philadelphia for a corrosion-control study and short- and long-term water system remediation plan, which have already been submitted to OEPA.
Both ordinances passed unanimously as emergency measures and both retroactively ratified Giroux’s actions.
The OEPA said it has been working with the village to fine-tune its water-system chemistry to minimize leaching of lead into the water from corrosion of residential piping.
OEPA has said no detectable lead has been found at the Sebring water treatment plant or in the headwaters of the Mahoning River, which is the village’s water source.
As ordered by the agency, free bottled-water distribution to village water system customers continues from 2 to 7 p.m. today, 7 a.m. to noon Wednesday and Friday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Sebring Community Center, 305 W. Texas Ave. There is no water distribution Thursday or Sunday.
Recipients must have their tap water lead-tested and will be ineligible for the free water if their premises test OK.