Tarentum working to resolve DEP water plant violations
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Tarentum has been called out by the state Department of Environmental Protection for the second time in six months for violations at the borough’s water plant.
Borough officials said the water is safe to drink.
“If there were a serious health risk, DEP regulations would require us to take much more aggressive action and issue immediate public warnings,” Manager Dwight Boddorf said.
Residents do not need to boil water or take other corrective actions. People with specific health concerns and those who are pregnant or elderly could be at increased risk from contaminants and can consult their doctor for guidance, according to the DEP violation notice.
The violations are related to elevated levels of total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), byproducts formed when chlorine interacts with organic matter.
The contaminants are calculated as a rolling average over three months.
“Unfortunately, by the time the lab results are processed and averaged, the violation has technically already occurred, leaving us unaware until after the fact,” Boddorf said. “This delayed notification was not due to negligence but due to the structure of the reporting and sampling system.”
Water plant Manager Jeff Adams posted a letter on the borough website to explain the situation, saying that residents’ safety is the top concern.
“This is not due to a single incident,” Adams wrote. “The DEP calculates compliance using a running average of samples collected over three months, meaning even one high reading can affect the average for several cycles.”
In Tarentum’s case, older sections of the distribution system can have water sitting too long and increase the likelihood of contaminants.
The borough has been struggling with a plan to upgrade its water system for several years. Built in 1934, much of the equipment is nearly 100 years old and failing. Officials are in the initial phases of a 20-year pipe replacement plan and other work to replace outdated pumps and improve electrical systems.
The total cost is expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars, Boddorf said.
“While we recognize this is a significant undertaking, we have already secured several million dollars in grant funding to upgrade the water plant, and we are actively pursuing additional grants to fund line replacement,” he said.
“These are legacy infrastructure issues that should have been addressed decades ago, and we are committed to fixing them without placing an undue burden on taxpayers. That means carefully balancing safety, cost and timing. We don’t want to drastically raise taxes or water rates if we don’t have to.”
The borough is working on short- and long-term solutions for the DEP violations that include more hydrant flushing throughout the year and an approval from the state to reconfigure the treatment process.
“As with most regulatory processes, it may take several months for approval,” Boddorf said.
The costs of remediation are being evaluated, and residents will be kept informed as plans progress, according to Adams’ letter.