Citizens voice water safety concerns

Several citizens turned out to the Calhoun City Council meeting this week to voice concerns and ask questions about the local water supply.

In February, the city released a statement regarding ongoing litigation over per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS), more often called “forever chemicals.”

The city is one of over a dozen defendants included in a 30-page suit filed in Gordon County Superior

Court where local plaintiffs allege PFAS was discharged into local wastewater. The city is also a defendant in a 75-page suit filed in federal court by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of Coosa River Basin Initiative March 7, asking for fines to be levied against in part against the city as prescribed by the Clean Water Act related to methods used to disperse sludge treated in city-owned facilities.

Data from last week's CRBI lawsuit alleges that data indicates levels of contamination at a sludge field and other dump sites across Gordon County are high.

Monday night, several citizens turned out to speak on the issue.

“What does the city plan to do to remediate the situation that is already there?” Pine Chapel Road resident William Brooks asked city officials. “Are you going to take our land and get it clean again? No, you can't do it — `forever' chemicals.”

Several other citizens shared Brooks' concerns, asking about the safety of the city's drinking water supply, and when the issue might be resolved.

“When are you going to provide us clean, safe water to drink?,” city resident Matthew Williams asked.

Prior to members of the public speaking on the issue, City Utilities Administrator Kyle Ellis used his monthly report to the council to speak on the matter.

“Calhoun Utilities has and will continue to work towards PFASsafe drinking water for the consumers of our product,” Ellis said.

“Granular activated carbon has already been installed in three of the four deep-bed

gravity filters at our Brittany Drive drinking water plant with the fourth expected to be delivered by the end of April — already on the way, well before the filing of either lawsuit.”

Ellis said the temporary

method of carbon-based filtration has show positive results.

“Our efforts with the use of GAC filtration has produced promising results with drinking water well within the proposed federal limitations at this facility,” Ellis

said. “This plant should be in full compliance with the proposed regulations by the end of next month, absent of any supply chain issues with carbon.”

Mayor Jimmy Palmer echoed Ellis' statement about the city's ongoing effort to comply with current and proposed PFAS standards.

“We expect when the fourth [filter] is put in place, it will be level of non-detect,” Palmer said, adding the city is “looking at every possible solution” to

make the water supply safe.

Prior to either lawsuit's filing, in November the city awarded a contract to Insite Engineering to provide professional engineering services for the removal of PFAS from Calhoun's water supply using grant funding. The firm will be tasked with the design and permitting of removal systems at current water treatment facilities in affiliation with the Calhoun's Emerging Contaminants Georgia Environmental Finance Authority

grant.

Ellis said the city also plans to assist citizens with groundwater wells that could also be affected.

“In the coming weeks, the city is also creating a procedure to notify and identify consumers with groundwater wells that will need to be tested for possible PFAS contamination,” Ellis said. “If a property is presently served by a contaminated well, the city is willing to provide a connection to the city supply with a waiver of connection fees.”

City Attorney George Govignon said the city is filing a cross claim listing manufacturers who used PFAS in the area.

“This is something I personally, as City Attorney, have been working on for months now,” Govignon said. “This is not a contamination that happened just today, this is something that's been out there for 40 years.”

Govignon explained that there are currently no regulations that put Calhoun's drinking water supply in the unsafe range, however the levels the city is working to comply with currently are being proposed for the future.

“We're doing everything we can, but this is not a problem we created,” Govignon said.