City To Enter Into Consent Agreement With Oklahoma Department Of Environmental Quality
The City of New Cordell’s water system fails to meet Oklahoma clean water standards for municipalities, according to two recent inspections of the city’s water system by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. The inspections, which took place on April 21 and April 28, were in response to citizen complaints about the city’s water quality.
On April 21, the DEQ inspector noted two primary issues with the city’s water supply. According to the report, the chlorine levels on the south side of town were not being maintained at required disinfectant levels and the water lines were not being flushed according to schedule.
Erin Hatfield, DEQ Communications Director, told the Beacon that Cordell’s water system is complex because the city draws water from two different sources, the city’s own well fields and the Foss Master Conservancy District. The city treats the well water with chlorine, but Foss uses chloramines to treat their water. The two disinfectants are not fully compatible, which results in low chlorine residuals in the system.
“The two different disinfectants being used and the lower water usage in the southern part of the system cause disinfectant byproduct (DBP) formation, which at elevated levels can become a violation,” she said. “Based on recent complaints, DEQ found low chlorine residuals and that Cordell was not implementing its flushing program.”
The report noted flushing should occur every 90 days, but that Cordell was not flushing during the winter months.
City Administrator J.C. Moser challenged the DEQ’s conclusions.
“The city never stopped flushing fire hydrants,” he said. “In February the flushing of the fire hydrants was assigned to the Cordell Fire Department and they flushed hydrants. The Cordell Water Department at that time cut back on their flushing of hydrants because the fire department was flushing them. During the winter months the Cordell Water Department only flushed hydrants that were on dead end lines as required by ODEQ. When the inspector came out to Cordell in April, Brian [Holden] with the water department was out on leave and the inspector put on her report that the city had stopped flushing fire hydrants. Again I say the City of Cordell never stopped flushing fire hydrants.”
The inspector’s second report, dated April 28, indicated that the flushing issue was a previous violation, but did not report a current violation at that time. The inspector did, however, note that four locations in the system were tested and found to have inadequate Total Chlorine residuals, and only one of those locations held sufficient Free Chlorine residuals. The report further indicated that the secondary water standards for color and odor were not being met, noting that the “water is yellow and opaque. Rust and corrosion issues [were] found across the system.”
The DEQ engineer spoke with Moser on May 8 regarding the implementation of a consent order to bring Cordell’s water system back into compliance. A consent order is a legally binding contract which contains a mandated compliance schedule for taking corrective action to address the violations identified by the inspector. According to Hatfield, that consent order has not yet been finalized, but it is expected soon.