Tri-County water authority to announce system improvements
FREDERICKTOWN – A once-troubled public water authority in Fredericktown is set to announce improvements to its system that produced a supply containing cancer-causing chemicals.
Tri-County Joint Municipal Authority will hold a public meeting next week to update its water quality progress, the authority announced Tuesday.
“They have not completed the work,” said John Poister, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection in Pittsburgh.
“They’re under construction, moving forward, but they’re not done yet,” Poister said.
The DEP fined the authority $23,400 last year in an 18-page order that involved missing records, illegal overflows into the Monongahela River, treatment issues and unaccounted for water withdrawals. The authority also fired and replaced management as it prepared to overhaul its water treatment plant and remove the chemicals known as trihalomethanes.
Poister said the plant is still out of compliance, however, the DEP has confidence the new management team at the authority will meet the department’s expectations.
“They’ve got their act together. The changes will eliminate the trihalomethanes problem,” Poister said.
Tri-County also must continue to issue 90-day notifications of trihalomethanes in the supply to its nearly 3,500 customers until the problem is solved, he said.
The DEP in the spring issued seven permits to the authority to make changes to its system to increase water flows so that the water doesn’t become stagnant and prone to the formation of trihalomethanes, Poister said.
Dave Bojtos, the authority’s operations manager, could not be reached Tuesday.
The authority meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the East Bethlehem Township Fire Hall, 831 Crawford Lane, Fredericktown.