Mandatory Public Reporting of TCEQ Violation regarding Drinking Water Q3 2020

Mandatory Language for a Maximum Contaminant Level Violation

MCL, LRAA / TTHM

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has notified the CITY OF SAN AUGUSTINE TX2030001 that the drinking water being supplied to customers had exceeded the maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for total trihalomethanes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has established the MCL for total trihalomethanes to be 0.080 milligrams per liter mg/L) based on locational running annual average (LRAA), and has determined that it is a health concern at levels above the MCL.  Analysis of drinking water in your community for total trihalomethanes indicates a compliance value in quarter three 2020 of 0.085 mg/L for DBP2-01 (Little League Baseball Field).

Trihalomethanes are a group of volatile organic compounds that are formed when chlorine, added to the water during the treatment process for disinfection, reacts with naturally-occurring organic matter in the water.

Some people who drink water containing trihalomethanes in excess of the MCL over many years may experience problems with their liver, kidney, or central nervous systems, and may have an increased risk of getting cancer.

You do not need to use an alternative crater supply. However, if you have health concerns, you may want to talk to your doctor to get more information about how this may affect you.

We are taking the following actions to address this issue:

The City has been having issues with this for some time, and we are continuing to remediate our system components one at a time to reduce the TTHM issues. In some cases, the very act of working on the system can cause an increase in TTHM because of the timing of the sampling/testing. Also, at the writing of this the City has a skeleton crew running the facility to maintain production due to Covid-19 effects resulting in attrition of our staff. We will continue to work on this problem into 2021. If after the whole system has been worked, and our average is still over the limit, only then will we consider changing to Chloramine disinfection which would have its own issues associated with a change.

Please share this Information with all people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (i.e., people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice m a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.

If you have questions regarding this matter, you may contact Chris Anding at the City of San Augustine by telephone at 936-275-2121 or by email to info@cityofsanaugustinetx.gov

Posted /Delivered on: Billings/Mailings and Handouts      

<12/28/2020>