Politics caused Delray Beach’s water problems

If Delray Beach were a college football team, the city would be facing the sport’s death penalty.

In a Jan. 3 draft memo, the Florida Department of Health concluded that Delray Beach essentially had failed for more than a decade to exercise institutional control over the water department. The memo recommended a fine of nearly $3 million for violations related to water quality.

In addition, the state proposed a consent order that would require the city to make many safety improvements. Delray Beach also would have to issue a public notice saying “The City of Delray Beach cannot assure utility customers that the drinking water produced and distributed met the standards of the Safe Water Drinking Act” between 2007 and February 2020.

Most water quality violations involve periods of between 30 days and 90 days. With Delray Beach, the state alleges that they happened over 13 years.

City officials have responded by hiring the Lewis, Longman and Walker law firm, which specializes in environmental and government law, to negotiate with the Department of Health. They also hired a public relations firm, which has advised city commissioners not to make public comments about the issue.

Delray Beach obviously hopes to get a better deal. It may happen. The Department of Health in Tallahassee will review the memo and consent order. So will the Department of Environmental Protection’s state and regional offices. The recommended fine is based on an Environmental Protection Agency rule that the state adopted.

Whatever the outcome, however, Delray Beach can’t escape the memo’s findings that detail so many years of mismanagement. The water problems also reflect the city’s management turmoil of the last few years, turmoil that stems in large part from the city’s caustic factional politics.

That turmoil is an issue in the March 9 election. Tracy Caruso, who is challenging Mayor Shelly Petrolia, claimed that the mayor lied about the water problems. Petrolia responded that Caruso’s comments amounted to Delray Beach residents being “terrorized.”

Many of the problems relate to the city’s reclaimed water program, which provides partially treated water suitable for irrigation but not drinking. The program depends on avoiding cross connections, when non-potable water enters the drinking water supply.

According to the health department memo, in June 2018, a database showed that the city had not performed cross-connection inspections at properties that received reclaimed water. There also were no inspection records.

Three months later, a city employee was assigned to conduct cross-connection inspections in an area called 12C. The employee found that outside faucets, showers and pool refills were connected to the reclaimed water system. Houses with both potable and reclaimed water did not have the required backflow preventers, devices to keep the two water sources separate.

In November 2018, the city began to get complaints about the color and smell of the water. Residents in 12C were getting sick. Yet city officials declined to test the water.

The complaints continued. On Dec. 1 and Dec. 3, the manager of an oceanfront mansion reported that everyone in the home, including the dog, had “stomach issues and diarrhea.”

During this time, the city employee that had been tasked with the inspections asked for a list of backflow preventers installed in Area 12C. There was no list, but the employee was “assured by utility staff ” that the city’s contractor had done the work.

On Feb. 3, health department officials met with the city’s utilities staff. Both sides had attorneys. City staffers “failed to produce complete records,” the memo said, and “admitted” that they were unaware of the rule to issue public notice when cross connections were discovered.

On Feb. 4, the health department ordered the city to issue a boil-water notice.

The memo reveals mismanagement in most areas related to water quality and supply. No one was in charge. There was no accountability. It almost certainly continued because of turnover at the top.

In December 2012, David Harden retired after nearly three decades as city manager. Since then, Delray Beach has had four permanent managers. None lasted more than two years. Jennifer Alvarez, the current occupant, is the fourth interim manager in the last eight-plus years.

Alvarez has had the job since last June. Previously, she had been the city’s purchasing director. The commission named her after suspending George Gretsas, which was a prelude to firing him last November.

Gretsas has claimed that he was fired in retaliation for looking too closely at the water problems. He has especially noted the $4.1 million contract that the commission awarded in 2017 to Deerfield Beachbased Lanzo Construction to expand the reclaimed water system. Mayor Shelly Petrolia and Commissioner Shirley Johnson are the only remaining officeholders. Both voted for the contract.

Based in part on information provided by Gretsas, Palm Beach County’s inspector general is investigating the water department to determine who is responsible for the problems. The are where Lanzo worked accounted for “many of the numerous violations I uncovered,” Gretsas wrote in a July 31 letter to the city.

“Finding out who responsible for the violations,” Gretsas wrote, “was a significant part of the scope of the investigation that I was in the middle of ” before Petrolia, Johnson and Juli Casale — Petrolia’s main commission ally — suspended him. Gretsas also claimed that Petrolia told him to lie and make it appear that she deserved no blame for the water problems.

Delivering safe water is the most basic of city services. In Delray Beach, political instability led to management instability that endangered public health.