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State agency clears water for drinking (Florida)

By SUSAN LATHAM CARR STAFF WRITER

OCALA -- The water is now safe to drink for residents of five Marion County subdivisions who have had to boil their water since Wednesday.

On Monday, the state Department of Environmental Protection lifted its Boil Water Notice to residents of High Pointe, Wineberry, Sun Tree, Countryside Buffington Addition, and Edgewood subdivisions in southeast Marion County.

"Everything has been cleared, so we are back on track," said Charles deMenzes, president of Residential Water Systems, the utility that provides water to the communities. "Pressure is back up to 70 pounds," he said.

Before the DEP would give the go-ahead to drink the water, bacteria tests had to be satisfactory for two consecutive days.

Three tests -- one on each of two wells and one of the distribution system -- were taken on both Feb. 11 and 12. All six tests were satisfactory, according to Richard Lott, DEP's manager of drinking water program.

The problem began Wednesday when water pressure in one of the two wells fell below acceptable levels. The second well was off-line being upgraded.

Because the water pressure dropped below the required minimum of 20 pounds per square inch, the DEP was concerned about the possibility there might be cross connections. Cross connections occur when water from an unknown-quality source gets into an approved water system.

An example of a cross connection might be when one fills a swimming pool with the hose opening under the water level and the water pressure goes off, some of the water in the pool will flow back into the hose. Although water systems have devices to prevent the back flow, the DEP wanted precautions taken and issued a notice to boil the water.

When the failure occurred, testing was begun. All the tests run on Wednesday were satisfactory. On Thursday, though, the bacterial test for one of the wells was unsatisfactory. As a result, the DEP would not rescind its notice and asked that residents continue to boil water through the weekend.

DeMenzes said Monday that both wells are up and running. He said his staff was going door-to-door to notify residents that they no longer had to boil their drinking and cooking water.

) Copyright 2000 Star-Banner

http://www.starbanner.com/SCwater215.html

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 15, 2000