Saxman residents are being asked to boil their water prior to drinking or cooking with it, following a failure at the city’s water treatment plant. The boil-water advisory was issued Tuesday.
Saxman receives its water from a nearby mountain reservoir. It is then filtered at the city’s treatment plant and held in a storage tank. The city said in a notice to residents that recent heavy rains and dirty raw water coming from the reservoir caused the treatment plant to go offline.
According to Jamie Bjorkman, who oversees the region’s drinking water program compliance for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the city’s storage tank ran dry because the plant was not producing treated water.
“And in that event, they lost pressure in their distribution system, and that’s where I come into play. Anytime there’s a loss of pressure in a distribution system, we issue a boil-water notice,” said Bjorkman.
When water lines lose pressure, there is a risk that contaminants can back-siphon into the water system. For the boil-water notice to be lifted, Bjorkman said pressure must be restored, the water lines have to be flushed, and then Saxman has to send off water samples for bacteria testing.
She said it’s a relatively quick process once Saxman is able to get their treatment facility back online.
“Once they get everything up and running, then they will produce enough water to fill the distribution system with that water that has the chlorine in it that will help disinfect the lines. And once that is done, then they can send samples to the lab, and the results coming back from the lab usually come back the day after they get there. So usually, once that happens, it’s about a day until I can close the notice. But I don’t know how long this will be before they get the plant up and running,” said Bjorkman.
Saxman was under a boil-water notice for over a week in December due to the installation of a new filtration system.
“Drinking water that hasn’t been adequately treated can result in things like gastrointestinal issues. You can have, you know, cramps, nausea, headaches, other symptoms like that,” said Bjorkman.
City of Saxman Clerk Yeił Atoowu Ginger McCormick said that you don’t need to boil water if you’re just washing your hands with it but if you are cooking or drinking or otherwise consuming it, it should be boiled beforehand for at least two minutes.
The City of Saxman said they are monitoring the pipes for any leaks and working to get the plant up and running. In the meantime, the Organized Village of Saxman is delivering bottled water to residents.
