Hydrogen Found in City Water Supply
What happens now?
Brian Spine
A city utility is in touch with federal officials and is cooperating with local environmental reviews.
The City Councilman reported that they have learned from several recent actions that could affect water quality in the area.
"The last thing that's wrong about your water is not drinking water, that's not available out here, " said Councilman Eric Miller. "This is not going to be something we're going to let our water... water be wasted on the backs of children and families. [sic]"
"They are not doing what we are talking about"
They also said that the water treatment facilities in the vicinity of the Kroc Building in the Wicker Park Towne County Water Treatment Facility are failing to meet state environmental standards for wastewater.
"They are not doing what we are talking about," said Councilwoman Elizabeth Sproul of the Towne County and Wicker Park Community Water Authority, in a news release. "They've just ignored their own rules by doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing and that's what they're getting out of this."
The Water Treatment Facility in Wicker Park County does not meet water quality standards for drinking water.
After a review and approval process, the Wicker Park Public Health Department notified the Wicker Park Environmental Control Commission of the failure of the facility on Aug. 4, 2017.
"The decision is that there has been a thorough and... thorough process and we can get a new permit to go into storage through November 25," said Dr. Jason Withers, director of the Wicker Park Environmental Control Commission.
"We are going to be very happy that it came from a trusted source."
"That did not happen; we're not going to start doing them for another five years"
The decision follows years of back-and-forth between regulators and Wicker Park over a chemical safety issue. As the Wicker Park Environmental Control Commission considers possible additional compliance issues with the HVEC or similar chemical regulators, the company began assessing alternatives for HVECs and chemical applications at the time. After Wicker Park submitted an application for a new E.CAP permit for two years, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees gave it to the company and were then told that the Wicker Park permit would be issued at the end of May.
The Environmental Protection Agency sent it to the Wicker Park Environmental Control Commission for confirmation. "That did not happen; we're not going to start doing them for another five years," said Withers. Withers' office said the Clean Air Act prohibited U.S. companies from accepting HVECs without a required approval before installing them. The EPA did not include any further regulatory changes in its approval process.
"We don't expect it to become operational within 10 to 15 months," Withers said. "After this one and two months that the system becomes operational we want to get it going and see what happens." Withers said HVECs can be installed inside Wicker Park apartments and can be installed in the Wicker Park's kitchens on the sixth floor of the center building. "The system won't go on the sixth floor," he said.
The EPA will oversee the operations of the facility, including monitoring the water
The state Department of Environmental Protection will review a decision between Clean Energy California — which will take over of the facility and oversee the water and air quality at the facility — and L' Automacité, Inc., which is owned by U.S. coal companies. This time, the EPA will oversee the operations of the facility, including monitoring the water, clean water, sewer and chemical emissions level, using its own tests and reporting measures. The regulatory issues that determine the future of the facility include testing for HVEC compliance at Wicker Park laboratories, environmental compliance, monitoring of groundwater, and quality improvement, all of which are being considered by the EPA's Office of Inspector General. If L' Automacité's initial plan to integrate the plants is accepted, the facility will be subject to the same quality standards as Los Angeles.