By Jane Smith
When Boynton Beach issued a systemwide precautionary boil water advisory in early October, not all its customers knew about the notice until hours later. In a few cases, it took days.
“I found out about 9 p.m.,” said Marie Chapman, a County Pocket resident. She made a pot of chicken soup for dinner, bathed her kids, made sure they brushed their teeth, put them to bed and then checked Facebook — about five hours after the notice was issued.
“They know how to find me when I don’t pay my bill,” said Chapman, who wanted to be personally notified. “I want to be informed and then let me make that choice for my children.”
Ocean Ridge residents also were not notified directly.
“About five residents called or sent emails to Town Hall, saying they were frustrated,” said Tracey Stevens, Ocean Ridge town manager.
The town’s Police Department first checked with Boynton Beach leaders to verify the notice affected all water customers. Then, police notified Ocean Ridge residents at 9:28 p.m. using the CivicReady application, Stevens said.
Stevens spoke with Boynton Beach officials two days later and reached an agreement that they would notify Ocean Ridge officials next time a boil water advisory or order is placed.
“We will notify our residents,” Stevens said.
It turned out that no bacteria entered the system and the water was safe to drink.
The problem started about 12:15 p.m. Oct. 8 at the main Boynton Beach water plant, according to the description given at the Oct. 15 City Commission meeting.
Workers were testing a generator. When they turned it off and switched over to electric power, nothing happened because the main breaker had failed, said Colin Groff, assistant city manager.
Staffers tried to reset the breaker manually for about 2 minutes, said Groff, a former utilities director. When they couldn’t do it, they immediately called the other plant operators to turn on the pumps to maintain pressure.
“Workers did not realize the pressure had dropped until about 10 minutes later when customers began to complain about low pressure,” Groff said.
Staffers reviewed the data for about 30 to 40 minutes. They found five or six points in the system where pressure dropped below 20 pounds per square inch.
That’s the pressure needed to make sure the water reaches customers and flows out of their faucets. When water stays at the plant or in the pipes, naturally occurring bacteria can grow, Groff explained.
“About 2:30 p.m., staff determined there was a pressure drop in the system,” Groff said.
Boynton Beach, as other water utilities, operates under a state permit that falls under the Florida Department of Health.
“We called the Health Department and spent time discussing the incident,” Groff said. “About 3 p.m., out of an abundance of caution, we decided it was advisable to do a systemwide notice that we had an issue. The law does not require us to do that. We could have just notified very specific customers, such as hospitals and dialysis centers.”
He told commissioners that it took until 4:15 p.m. until the city and the Health Department agreed on the wording of the notice.
The notice then went to the city’s utilities and marketing departments to decide how to inform its 112,000 water customers.
Under state law, the city had three choices, Groff said.
The first was door hangers.
“That’s what we do when we have a boil water order that affects a small number of customers. With 112,000 customers that notification could not be done in the (required) 24 hours,” Groff said.
The second option was telephone calls.
“We have 35,000 accounts with multiple customers. Homeowner associations, apartment buildings and condominiums all get one bill,” Groff said. “We talked about doing reverse 911 calls, but this incident did not rise to the level of an emergency.”
The third option, which Boynton Beach used, was the media.
“We sent the notice to the 24 media outlets that serve Boynton Beach. We also posted the notice on the city’s website and Facebook and Twitter accounts,” Groff said.
He added, “It was not required.”
The city chose to use the media because it would have the biggest impact, Groff said. “Many people have text alerts on their smartphones to be notified when news happens in their area,” he said.
“The water system was completely clear,” Groff said when the last notice was lifted five days later.
After the city had the test results, staff could say no one’s life was in danger. “But at the time, I could not say that,” Groff said when answering a commissioner’s question.
Next time, the city will send out an email to its water customers to notify them of a precautionary or urgent boil water notice, Groff said, agreeing with Mayor Steven Grant’s suggestion.
City staff is also testing the CivicReady application to notify its residents and water customers.
People would have to opt in, Groff said. The system contacts users by calls, texts or emails.
While the Health Department found that Boynton Beach followed the guidelines in notifying its customers, the city could not control the reporting by media outlets.
“I learned about the notice on the 6 p.m. news,” said Dale Sugerman, Briny Breezes town manager.
“From the news report, I could not tell whether it was an isolated area or the entire system. I called the Boynton Beach city manager and utilities manager to learn it was systemwide.”
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