What You Need To Know About Your Water
In May 2023, Bessemer City sent out a water violation notice notifying customers that the City did not meet disinfection of byproducts (DBP) for treatment technicians as required for total organic carbon (TOC). This notice was for the reporting period of October 1, 2022-December 31, 2022. Essentially, our staff should have submitted a report with this information. Staff submitted this report quarterly; however, the regulation changed requiring the report to be submitted monthly. The reporting issue has been resolved. There was no change in water quality or the way we process water. This was a reporting error.
Click Here to Download the May 2023 NOV
In June 2023, a violation notice was sent out to notify customers that the City missed the required 1.00 removal ratio of Total Organic Carbon (TOC) in our treatment process for reporting period January 1, 2023-March 31, 2023. During this time, The City was removing TOC at .99, missing the required removal ratio by only .01. Current improvements to the system and our treatment process will help this removal ratio moving forward. We have gone from a single stage flocculation to a two-stage flocculation system as of June 8, 2023. We have also changed our visually monitoring of flocculation chambers as well. Total Organic Carbon (TOC) has no health effects.
Click Here to Download the June 2023 NOV
In August 2023, a violation notice was sent to customers to notify them that the City did not meet reporting requirements for Disinfection Byproducts (DBP).
The Water Plant was shut down from May 8, 2023 until June 6, 2023 for system upgrades; therefore, DBP monitoring did not take place since the plant was closed for these upgrades. We did sample in second quarter of 2023 but we did not meet the 90 day rule which states that sampling must be done within 90 days of the previous sampling event and we did not meet that deadline. We are currently on schedule for all sampling events.
Click Here to Download the July 2023 NOV
In August 2023, a violation notice was sent to customers to notify them that the City did not meet reporting requirements for Total Organic Carbon (TOC) on April 1, 2023 and May 1, 2023.
The Water Plant was under major renovation during the months of April and May and the Plant was not operating from May 8, 2023 through June 6, 2023. We are back in operation and we are in compliance with our monthly monitoring of TOC.
Click Here to Download the August 2023 NOV
In August 2023, a violation notice was sent to customers to notify them that the City did not meet reporting requirements for Total Organic Carbon (TOC)North Carolina’s Rules Governing Public Water Systems requires that we comply with DBP precursor removal requirements. We routinely monitor for the presence of precursors within the water treatment plant(s). Test results for the time period of April 1, 2023, through June 30, 2023. showed that treatment techniques being used have been ineffective in adequately reducing the TOC levels. The Removal ratio for this monitoring period was 0.86 when the express Running Annual Average (RAA), which does not meet the required removal ratio of 1.00. The Water Plant was going through major renovations in April and May 2023 and no samples were collected in these two months which resulted in this violation. The Plant was shut down completely from May 8, 2023, through June 6, 2023. We have since sampled TOCs in both June and July met the removal ratio. We do not anticipate any future problems meeting our monitoring requirements.
Click Here to Download the August 2023 NOV
In November 2023, a violation notice was sent to customers to notify them that our system did not meet a treatment technique requirement because the Running Annual Average (RAA) for Total Organic Carbon (TOC) did not meet the required removal ratio of 1.00. The Removal ratio for this monitoring period was 0.90. What this means is that the State takes the last 4 quarters and averages them together to meet this rule. Our removal ratio for the 3rd quarter 2023 was 1.03. We had an issue meeting the removal ratio in 4th quarter of 2022 and the 2nd quarter of 2023. During the 2nd quarter of 2023 we were going through a major renovation at the water plant. With the RAA I expect another NOV for next 2 quarters for the same violation. We continue to test our water on a daily basis and the water that is treated and produced by the Water Plant is completely safe to drink, use in cooking, and any personal use.
Click Here to Download the November 2023 NOV
In February 2024, a violation notice was sent to customers to notify them that our system did not meet a treatment technique requirement because the Running Annual Average (RAA) for Total Organic Carbon (TOC) did not meet the required removal ratio of 1.00.
The Removal ratio for this monitoring period was 0.98 when the express Running Annual Average (RAA), which does not meet the required removal ratio of 1.00. What this means is that the State takes the last 4 quarters and averages them together to meet this rule. Our removal ratio for the 3rd quarter 2023 was 1.03. We had an issue meeting the removal ratio in 1st quarter of 2023 and the 4th quarter of 2023. Durning the 2nd quarter of 2023 we were going through a major renovation at the water plant. With the RAA, the City expects another NOV for the next quarter for this same violation. We continue to test our water on a daily basis and the water that is treated and produced by the Water Plant is completely safe to drink, use in cooking and any personal use.
Click Here to Download the February 2024 NOV
In May 2024, a violation notice was sent to customers to notify them that our system did not meet a treatment technique requirement because the Running Annual Average (RAA) for Total Organic Carbon (TOC) did not meet the required removal ratio of 1.00.
The Removal ratio for this 12 month monitoring period was 0.99 when the express Running Annual Average (RAA), which does not meet the required removal ratio of 1.00. What this means is that the State takes the last 4 quarters and averages them together to meet this rule. During the 2nd quarter of 2023 (April, May and June we were going through a major renovation at the water plant and only sampled in June because the plant was not in operation for most of this time. We continue to test our water on a daily basis and the water that is treated and produced by the Water Treatment Plant is completely safe to drink, use in cooking, and any personal use.
Click Here to Download the May 2024 NOV
Please contact us if you have questions related to these NOVs.
Dennis Wells
Bessemer City Water Treatment Plant ORC
dwells@bessemercity.com
(704) 629-5542