By David Jenkins
Staff Writer
The city of Murphy violated the water monitoring and reporting requirements sets forth by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Public Services Director Bernie Parker came before council during the March 1 meeting to explain how the 2015 testing was missed. The last test was in 2012, which had the city on a tri-annual testing schedule.
“Once the letter had been sent out I got several calls from residents. I explained to them and reassured them that our water is safe for consumption and we had issues with the process,” he said. “I explained to them that we purchase our water from the North Texas Municipal Water District and that on a monthly basis they test for lead and copper, and other minerals that are in the surface water.”
The state or TCEQ changed their notification process to municipalities in 2014.
Also affecting the missed test was the Public Works and Public Services staff turnover and loss of institutional knowledge.
In 2012, 2009, 2006 and 2003, the city received testing bottles from the state and used them as a visual trigger to conduct those tests. This past year the state didn’t do that.
“The root cause here is we had staff turnover and there was an institutional memory loss,” Deputy Mayor pro tem Owais Siddiqui said. “I’m confident that as long as you (Bernie Parker) are here this won’t happen again.”
For full story see the Murphy Monitor at http://www.etypeservices.com/Murphy%20MonitorID247/default.aspx
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