By DAVE SCHULTZ
The Bluffton water system is being flushed out, with something like 140,000 gallons of water recently passing through the city’s pipes in an effort to clean them out.
The city has been fielding complaints about the quality of water coming into homes and businesses since the new water treatment plant on the city’s south side came online. The engineering company that planned the water system upgrades and supervised their construction said the cause of the poor water quality was scaling inside the pipes. Since the water direction was reversed and now runs south to north, that scaling is breaking loose.
There also appears to be a question about hardness in the water as the water filtration plant uses a different system than the old plant did.
Bluffton Utilities recently flushed around the area of the Bluffton-Harrison Metropolitan School District’s campus on the south side, and also overfilled the water storage tank on Indiana Street in an effort to clear out the water. The next step is to do the same to the Cherry Street water tower on the city’s west side.
The plan is to keep up with an aggressive flushing program from the Crosbie Bridge on Main Street south to Spring Street.
“We will continue until the problem is solved,” said Dave Hendricks, supervisor of the city’s water distribution system.
The city also took care of some customers’ requests for adjustments in their water bills.
Tony Shively asked for a rate adjustment for property at 1111 Hollyhock. He said a leak at an outside hydrant caused bills to skyrocket to $392.80 on his July bill and $361.79 on his August bill. The average water bill for his tenant at the property, he said, was $53.
The board dropped his bill by half of the overage, which brought the total to about $327.
Chandler Gerber told the board he had recently purchased the Hampshire Court Apartments on East Dustman Road. When he did so, he had to put down a deposit of $3,000, based on the estimated water usage by the residents. He said the actual bill is more on the order of $2,000 a month. The board agreed to refund $1,000 of his deposit.
Erin Daugherty said she is responsible for the water bill for both units at 1085 N. Main St., where she has a State Farm Insurance office in one of the units. A leak in the toilet in the other unit resulted in a jump in the water bill. The board agreed to make a $90 adjustment to her bill.
Also, Dayle Mentzer came before the board for an adjustment on her home’s water bill. A leak on the east side of her property resulted in abnormally high usage in April and May. The leak has been fixed and water bills have dropped to normal. None of the excess water entered the city’s sanitary sewer system.
An adjustment of half of the $583.35 bill above normal was granted.
All three board members — Mayor John Whicker, Roger Thornton, and Scott Mentzer — were present for Tuesday’s meeting, Mentzer abstained from voting on his wife’s request for the house they share at 628 E. South St.
daves@news-banner.com
