SAN ANGELO, TX – City of San Angelo Water Utilities Director Allison Strube will present the city council the final update on the PaulAnn water contamination investigation during the regular council meeting Tuesday.
According to the agenda, Strube will present the following information to the city council.
The City of San Angelo, along with other officials across Texas, have investigated the cause of the water contamination that occurred around Feb. 8 in the PaulAnn area. All personnel involved worked diligently to identify the potential source and ensure there are no ongoing concerns.
The contamination issue was not a source water issue; it was isolated to the PaulAnn and northern industrial areas of the city. The northern industrial area is still under a do-not-drink order. The City of San Angelo is delivering bottled drinking water on a regular basis to the 29 residents who reside in this area.
The businesses in this area have worked with the City to provide access to their facilities. We will be working with these facilities to improve their plumbing systems and further protect the City’s water system.
This is truly a needle-in-a-haystack kind of investigation because the chemical volume that caused the contamination could have been less than a gallon. We do believe this was a one-time occurrence rather than an ongoing issue.
Under the Disaster Declaration, the City of San Angelo was able to request additional assistance from the State of Texas. Inspectors from McAllen, Lubbock, Brownwood and Abilene – who were sent by the State – inspected businesses in the northern industrial area. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) conducted its own investigation in that area, as well.
A total of 85 facilities and businesses located in the northern industrial and PaulAnn areas have been inspected. As a result, locations with inadequate protection will be required to upgrade or install additional backflow devices to help protect the City’s potable water supply.
At this point, inspectors have not found direct evidence linking the contamination to a specific site. Our investigators have explored and investigated all possibilities. Some have inquired about whether or not the City was protecting the guilty party; the answer to that is no. The City wants to find the party responsible as much as everyone else does. It’s important to note that this investigation was being conducted by more than just the City of San Angelo; the State of Texas, through TCEQ, also investigated the incident. As the investigation continued in the area, more and more businesses were excluded as the potential source.
The San Angelo City Council meets in regular session at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning in council chambers at the McNease Convention Center.
