Mandatory Public Reporting of TCEQ Violation regarding Drinking Water Q 4 2018

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has notified the City of San Augustine public water system that the drinking water being supplied to customers had exceeded the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for total trihalomethanes in the yearly running average for Q 4 2018. The notice is attached. We received it in a time frame that made inclusion in the January billing impossible, so we have added the mailer to the current bill.

This is the running average (not the current value), and you should note that the acceptable tthm values were exceeded at the remote sampling points where water can not be flushed readily by the City. In addition to the system upgrades in the form of new storage tanks we are working to relocate the sampling points away from places like the Ball Park on 21 which is only seasonally used. The piping run there is particularly long, and the seasonal usage lets the water stay in the system too long which causes it to build up trihalomethanes to a higher level. Trihalomethanes are a by-product of disinfection with chlorine over time, and they are a particular nuisance with a high organic load such as that coming from City Lake in the seasonal high rains and associated run-off.