CADIZ, Ohio — A tense open house with the Ohio EPA underscored the frustration Cadiz residents are feeling about their tap water, which has been producing unusable water for weeks.
A boil advisory placed at the beginning of July is still in effect. Frustrated residents asked about solutions, and at one point the Mayor of Cadiz, R. Kevin Jones, ground the meeting to a halt as he argued with and belittled residents.
The water system first faced trouble last year when residents dealt with a roughly two-month boil advisory on their tap water because of turbidity issues. Some residents claim that even after the boil advisory was lifted, their tap water remained discolored and bad-smelling. Now, the problems are back, and residents have a lot less patience.
“There’s frustration, and that’s because the people feel like they’re not being told enough,” said Cadiz Councilmember Eric Miller before the meeting.
Residents have dealt with weeks of discolored and smelly water that residents say they can’t use to shower, cook or drink. Local businesses can’t use their soda fountains or ice machines, and some are opting to clean with purified water they have bought.
The open house with the Ohio EPA was meant to provide residents with more information and the opportunity to ask questions. However, the meeting often got sidetracked by dialogues between specific residents and officials. The initial idea to give residents a chance to speak with Ohio EPA officials one-on-one with residents never came to fruition.
The Ohio EPA gave a presentation going over the steps that have been taken to try to resolve the issue.
“We don’t have a quick solution,” said Joshua Legg, an Ohio EPA official who has been working closely with Cadiz to improve its operations and lift the current boil advisory.
High manganese levels are the current reason for the boil advisory, and although officials say the water is technically safe to drink, discoloration and a bad smell and taste make it unusable. The Ohio EPA said there is currently no timeline for the current boil advisory to be lifted, but that some progress has been made.
“There’s been a number of changes that they made with how they’re adding chemicals and treatment and testing. We’re starting to see some improvements,” said Amy Klei, Chief of Drinking Water at the Ohio EPA.
Klei said part of the reason for the inconsistent tap water is the fact that Cadiz’s water treatment plant is aging and that it pulls water from nearby Tappan Lake, which is a surface water source.
“There’s a lot of years of deferred maintenance, and Cadiz is not alone in that,” said Klei. “I think there are some unique challenges that Cadiz has with the way their plant is set up. Surface water sources can be challenging because they change based on the dynamics with the lake.”
The EPA laid out three long-term solutions to stabilize Cadiz’s water supply.
A slide presented at the open house by the Ohio EPA. (Ohio EPA)
The first is connecting to another water system and no longer using Tappan Lake as a source.
“You would need to have some transmission lines constructed for whatever the mileage is to get the system here in Cadiz. Then you would need some booster stations to be built to maintain pressure within Cadiz,” Klei explained.
Klei said the closest and cheapest option would be to connect with the nearby Tri-County Rural Water. A rough time estimate of this option was given as 15 to 18 months, and the cost estimate was $6-10 million. This timeline is not to lift the current boil advisory, but rather the time it would take to fully transfer over to receiving water from the other system. Residents asked if this would increase water bills, but officials said the impact of this on their water bills was not yet known.
Klei said that one downside is the loss of control of the system, but also said connecting to a regional system has benefits, especially due to increased regulatory requirements to run a water treatment plant.
“We’re seeing a lot of communities all across the state investing in these types of partnerships and regionalization projects,” Klei said.
The second option would be to build a whole new water plant. This would take several years and cost around $20 million.
The last option was to make upgrades to the current water treatment plant, which did not come with a timeline or a cost estimate.
Klei stressed the EPA will not be the ones to decide on a long-term solution; rather, they are helping the village explore their options. The Cadiz Council will ultimately decide. She said the fastest and cheapest long-term solution would be to connect to a nearby water system.
“Let’s get out of the water business,” Cadiz Mayor R. Kevin Jones said after the presentation.
Jones said he supported the idea of connecting to Tri-County water and using the groundwater wells in the city as a backup water source in case of an emergency.
The meeting ground to a halt as tensions between residents and officials rose.
“What do I have to do, unscrew it and put it in your mouth?” Jones said to a resident, referring to the purified water that the city has provided to residents during the latest boil advisory.
Adding to the recent concern about the quality of the tap water was a recent post made by Harrison County Public Health stating there have been reports of a harmful algae bloom in Tappan Lake in early July.
However, Craig Butler, Executive Director of the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, which oversees Tappan Lake, said they found no evidence of a bloom when they checked in mid-July.
“It doesn’t mean that perhaps it wasn’t there at the time. Harmful algae blooms can be pretty transient; they can pop up and be gone in just a really short amount of time,” Butler said.
Butler added that algae blooms aren’t typically an issue in Tappan Lake and couldn’t remember the last time there was a harmful algae bloom in Tappan.
Ohio Statehouse Representative for House District 95, Ty Moore was also at the meeting. He told the crowd he’s also been briefed by the EPA and would bring attention to the ongoing issues to the state government.
“This is an emergency to me, and I’m going to make sure Columbus understands that,” Moore said.
Moore said once the Cadiz council decided on a long-term solution, he’d work to find funding.
Residents also brought up concerns about their high water bills and long-term damage to their boilers and filtration systems.
Jones said the village council was discussing potentially offering refunds, but it has not yet made a decision.
Corey O’Leary
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