It was a press conference staged inside the St. Clairsville Municipal Building Thursday morning simply so Mayor Kathryn Thalman could repeat herself in an effort to rid confusion for her constituents.
Why the confusion?
“Our water situation has been moving very fast. It’s very dynamic,” Mayor Thalman said. “And I was starting to hear some information that was not correct coming from social media and some other sources and I thought, let’s have a press conference and kind of let everyone know so we’re all on the same page.”
So, council members, administrators, and members of the media were in attendance with some wearing face covering while observing social distancing requirements as outline by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
Flanked by engineer Jeff Vaughan of Vaughn Coast and Vaughn, along with Kelly Porter from the Belmont County Water & Sewer District, Thalman first touched on a bit of the city’s water history as it relates to the county.
- In 1960, two booster stations were installed by the county within city limits: (1) the East End booster station near the intersection of Rehm Road and U.S. 40; and (2) the Clark Rd. (Ohio 9 South) location near its intersection with Willow Grove Road. Those were designed to supplement the city, especially in case of a sudden lack of available water from the city’s reservoir.
- Fast forward to 1988, a major drought occurred and the reservoir’s water reached such low levels that swimming pools were not filled in the city.
- The situation bore an agreement between Bellaire, Belmont County and St. Clairsville to ensure a similar situation didn’t reoccur. The following year, a connection was made from Bellaire to Belmont County and from the county to St. Clairsville. The plan was to supplement, not replace the cities’ water systems.
Hitting the EPA’s Radar
Fifteen years ago, the county and city combined using a public works group to install a 12-inch line and booster station for the county to pump its groundwater directly into St. Clairsville distribution system at its water plant.
Once that booster was put in place, the county could provide up to 325,000 gallons per day, as needed, to the city. With a dedicated supplemental backup ready to shoot clean water directly into the lines, slowly deteriorating conditions at the city’s water plant were overlooked, perhaps due to more immediate concerns.
But in 2015, the deterioration finally caught the attention of the Ohio EPA as a lack of capital improvements at the plan raised a few eyebrows with the state agency. A year later, Aqua Ohio made its first overture to the city about the possibility of purchasing its water system.
“I think it’s fair to say that from 2016 until recently,” Thalman said, “very little was done with the plant in anticipation of possibly selling the water.”
Aqua and the previous administration worked up a contract, held ordinance readings at council and came to a third-and-final reading late in 2019 before the ordinance was indefinitely tabled after election results and a number of protests against the sale necessitated a further look at the situation.
That additional look though added more time to the fixing of the water system’s various issues. So less than a month after Thalman took office, the city was delivered “findings and orders” from the Ohio EPA. In short, it’s an official list of what the EPA found wrong, what must be fixed, and a timetable for the repairs.
Needing a Solution—Now
The EPA wanted answers and it wanted them now. It had given the city plenty of advance notice without proper action being taken. It wasn’t going to wait much longer.
The administration quickly brought together a meeting of city officials, and representatives from both Belmont County and Martins Ferry to see what options were feasible and to come up with a plan for the EPA.
Thalman explained the four options the group came up with were (1) to sell to Aqua Ohio, (2) purchase bulk water off of Martins Ferry, (3) purchase bulk water off Belmont County, and (4) finance the repairs to the water plant and reservoir and keep the entire production in-house. The fourth option, the mayor noted, “the fourth choice wasn’t really a choice at all.”
In working with Vaughan, it was decided purchasing bulk water was the best option and that was the plan that was submitted to the EPA. It wasn’t voted upon nor set in stone, but the EPA needed a viable solution and the plan submitted to the state organization was that.
Items Fixed and Changes Made
In the meantime, with the help of Vaughn and Don Smithberger with the city, all but two of the EPA’s orders were able to be taken care of, many for considerably less cost than previously anticipated.
A brief rundown of the major fixes carried out by the city can be found in this earlier story on LedeNews. That was the good news. Items were fixed and the city’s submission of a five-year timetable to move to full purchase from the county seemed to meet the EPA’s expectations.
And it did meet them, albeit with a slight significant change. The first, the EPA gave the city two years, not five, to get the switch made. That necessitated the plans to rebuild and reconnect the East End booster station on U.S. 40 as the county’s main booster at the city’s water plant does not have the hydraulic capability presently to pump the estimated 500,000-540,000 thousand gallons needed for daily usage. It will in a few years, as the county’s own system and water plant are receiving upgrades. But that East End booster will serve to provide the extra amount needed until the main booster can handle the full load. Then, that secondary booster can fill redundancy purposes for the system.
The EPA also forced the city’s hand in that it mandated the reservoir must be retired as a surface-water option. This necessitated a number of changes be made to the previous contract between the city and Aqua Ohio. A new one must be drafted, and an ordinance would need read three additional times, either once per meeting, or in an emergency status provided five of the seven council members approve the move.
No new contract has been completed yet, but Aqua officials have been in contact with the city in the last week. The company’s May 4 deadline for approval was rescinded.
Council next meets Monday at 7:30 p.m. via teleconference for its first of two regular monthly meetings.
