RESIDENTS OF WEDGEFIELD, long engaged in a dispute with their private water supplier, now say their laundry is being bleached because of over-chlorination.
Residents say Pluris’ product is bleaching their laundry
Residents of Wedgefield, long embroiled in a dispute with their private water supplier, now say their laundry is being bleached because of overchlorination.
People in the east Orange County neighborhood have been aggressively pushing the county to buy or get jurisdiction over Pluris water service for months.
Community activist Pamela DiMarzio says they’re close to sending the county the necessary petition that contains twothirds of owners backing a sale.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has been monitoring water since last year, when preliminary results showed levels of potentially cancer-causing chemical compounds. New results suggest the water is not a health hazard, county officials said this week.
DiMarzio said she’s seen “pretty severe” bleaching of clothes, sheets and towels in the neighborhood.
“An entire beach towel was completely bleached, and [other times] it literally looked like bleach was just dropped on clothes,” she said.
She said Pluris officials told her the fault lies in the washing machines.
“People all of a sudden couldn’t have tons of machines in the community go bad in the exact same manner,” she said, adding that many of the 5,300 residents have stopped using the water for anything other than showers.
“Who wants to drink water that can bleach clothes?” DiMarzio said. “If you do that, what would it do to your insides? [But] you can’t avoid coming into contact with water.”
Pluris did not respond to requests for comment.
David Jones, Orange County Environmental Protection Division director, said in the past month the FDEP asked the Florida Department of Health to independently verify some of the results of the tests for chlorination by-products.
The DOH used county labs and determined there were “a few detections” of the com- pounds, called trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids, but nothing that exceeded drinking water standards.
The compounds are suspected to cause health risks with long-term exposure, including bladder and colon cancers.
Even worse, residents said, was notice that Pluris was planning to increase rates again from a fixed base rate of $24.71 to $28.32 per user, not including additional rates for usage. By comparison, Orange County Utility rates will have a fixed rate of $8.20.
“They’re basically asking us to pay for their mistakes,” said resident Natalie Mariko.
DiMarzio said a non-binding petition requesting that the county look into purchasing Pluris Wedgefield has about 1,180 signatures, with just 125 more needed to get the required two-thirds of all owners in the coverage area.
A rate comparison sheet put together by the county estimates most Pluris customers would save money if the county
bought hike. the system, even if they had a pay a monthly tax to offset the cost of a purchase of as much as $25 million to $30 million.
Orange Commissioner Emily Bonilla, who represents the area, asked the county to look into a purchase during Tuesday’ s commission meeting.
County Administrator Ajit Lalchandani said it was unclear if Pluris was even interested in selling, “but I presume for the right price, you can buy or sell anything. I don’t know what the numbers are going to be.”
Bonilla also asked the county to send a letter asking for juris- diction of the private Pluris utility be transferred from the Florida Public Service Commission to the county to prevent the rate hike. Mayor Teresa Jacobs asked for a work session to discuss the idea, though she added “taking over jurisdiction and the idea you just don’t approve a rate increase because you don’t like rate increases is not that simple.” Mariko was frustrated by the response. “The issue is not going away,” she said. “It’s something they have to deal with.”