TALLADEGA — Last month, city manager Michael Stampfler arranged for the City Council to tour the city’s water treatment plant and provided them, during an executive session, with a report outlining a wide variety of problems with the system.

After reconvening, most of the report was read into the record by Councilmen Eddie Tucker, Jimmy Davis and Donnie Miller. Council President Horace Patterson and Mayor Brian York expressed shock at the findings, and Stampfler was instructed to provide the council with options to remedy the problem no later than the first council meeting in December.

Water and Sewer operations manager James Brasher and Josh Blankenship, chief operator at the surface water treatment plant, said they take issue with some of the findings, pointing out that council members who were taken on a tour of the plant were not accompanied by a certified operator.

The first section of Stampfler’s report says, “The inspection of the main water treatment plant Oct. 21 and 22, 2009, has shown significant issues related to both safety and service quality. Significant health related issues noted during the tour (oil leaking above the water supply, improper handling of corrosive agents, etc.) (have) not yet (been) corrected. Safety hazards (have) not yet all properly (been) corrected.”

The report is followed by a series of photographs by safety director Terry Hanner. The first shows an “improperly installed alum valve that allows the release of poisonous vapor,” taken during the tour Nov. 18. This issue was pointed out in a memo dated Oct. 29, and a report of corrective action was due Nov. 12.

“That tank was not installed by us, it was installed years ago by a contractor,” Brasher said. “I don’t know who installed it, but it’s been sitting out there for years and no one from ADEM (Alabama Department of Environmental Management) has ever said anything about it. But it’s never been cited by ADEM or even anyone with OSHA (Occupational Safety Hazard Administration) training.”

Blankenship said a makeshift catch-pan had been added, and that any leaks had been fixed years ago. “That’s the problem. This stuff gets let go for years and years and years, and now we’re trying to fix them,” he said.

The second Nov. 18 photograph shows a vent pipe that appears to have been broken off and is not screened. The description says, “unscreened vent pipe allowing contamination over drinking water supply.” This was also pointed out in an Oct. 29 memo and should have been resolved by Nov. 12, according to the report.

The next photo shows a “broken valve (since February ’09) in settling basin prohibiting use of half of water plant filtering capacity.” The dates on this information are similar to the ones for the previous two pictures.

According to Blankenship, the timeline and the implication of this statement are both wrong. “The valve that failed in February was replaced.” There was not enough torque on the wheel to open or close it from above the water, however, but Blankenship said he was able to close it off with a wrench from below. The valve shown in the photo failed more recently, and Blankenship said a replacement has been ordered.

Brasher and Blankenship said that, even if everything was up and running in proper working order, the plant was only designed to operate one half at a time.

“We shut down one, clean it out and let the other run,” Brasher said.

“We can’t run both sides at the same time because of the way the plant was designed,” Blankenship said. “The same pipes that carry water in on one side also carry it out, and they’re not big enough.”

The next three pictures from the report show leaking oil on a chemical mixer, a second chemical mixer and a backwash pump all “directly over the drinking water supply, all on a similar time line.”

Blankenship showed that the oil on the two chemical mixers had been cleaned up, and pointed out that they were tightly sealed, with no danger of getting into the drinking water supply. The second mixer has not been used for the past few weeks.

The sight-glass on the backwash pump is broken, but a replacement glass has been ordered, and this item is also sealed away from the water supply.

“If we were getting oil into the water, you would see a slick all the way across the basins,” Blankenship said.

Brasher added that a private company tests water from the plant monthly, and has never detected oil in it. “We do need a maintenance guy, which is one of the reasons I hired Josh (Blankenship),” he said. “He’s got some maintenance background.”

The last photograph shows a “decayed plastic ‘out of service’ bag over a fire hydrant in Brecon that denotes a very lengthy time period during which necessary maintenance has not been performed. (It is) one of many unserviced hydrants in the city,” Stampfler’s report states.

Brasher agreed. “There are hydrants like this all over the city. They just found the worst they could find.”

The second section of the report is headed “The EPA Compliance Agreement entered into on Sept. 25, 2007, as a result of incidents discovered in May 2003, and the ADEM Consent Order entered into on Aug. 20, 2007.”

“All council members have received copies of these orders and the materials have been discussed with the city attorney present,” according to Stampfler’s report. “The audit by the EPA conducted on July 20, 2009, as the council was notified, pointed out certain failures to conform the EPA Compliance Order and the ADEM Consent Agreement.”

These failures include “failure to address inflow and infiltration issues that cause sanitary sewer overflows” and “failure to conduct and document preventative maintenance on the water plants and system.”

Brasher said that almost $2 million has already been spent addressing issues. “We all agreed it needed more work in the system. We budgeted $300,000 last year, and spent $160,000 on spot repairs, video inspections and clearing lines no one could get to. We cleaned out a line in Brecon that hadn’t been serviced in 25 years. When we finally got the area cleared, we found all the manhole covers were missing. So, yes, we’ve done a lot, and yes, we still need a lot more. We cut that line item in our budget this year because of the economy, but we’re still talking about spending more than anyone has ever spent in the past.”

As far as plant maintenance, Brasher said, “I have two people with a maintenance background at the wastewater plant and lift stations, but the water plant is strictly operators. Like I said earlier, Josh does have a maintenance background, so he’s getting some of that done.”