Needed repairs at Vienna water treatment plant progressing

By Laura Schiermeier, Staff Writer
Posted 12/16/20

At the Vienna City Council’s December meeting, Utilities Superintendent Shon Westart said he believes the needed repairs and updates at the city’s water treatment plant have been …

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Needed repairs at Vienna water treatment plant progressing

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At the Vienna City Council’s December meeting, Utilities Superintendent Shon Westart said he believes the needed repairs and updates at the city’s water treatment plant have been recognized and the repairs will be made soon.

Westart and council members have been frustrated by EPA staff who say help is on the way, and then there is no contact for months at a time. In an effort to move the process forward, Westart asked Mid-State Pipeline to give a cost estimate on the needed repairs and the chemical put into the system to reduce the hardness of the water. At last month’s meeting, Westart suggested the city pay for the work itself rather than waiting on the EPA, which in the past said it would pay for the work with federal Super Fund money.

Westart recently had a conversation with the city’s EPA engineer contact and they walked through a list of needed repairs and upgrades. Westart was told by the EPA contact that he would get it approved and they would move forward getting the work done.

“I don’t want to get into winter and have something go wrong,” Westart told the council members. He said the EPA contacted Mid-State for an ID number and he is hopeful this means they will move forward with the repairs in a week or two.

He said what is needed is solvent put into the water, new valves, checking valves, and more work to provide good maintenance practices.

The work should only take a day to complete, Westart said, adding that this work is “small stuff.”

Mayor Tyler “TC” James asked about sampling wells for the PCE contaminant that began the long process that ended up with the city having a new packed tower aerator and water treatment plant to eliminate the cancer-causing contaminant. Westart said he was told they are not finding the PCE anywhere they’ve tested in Vienna.

It was explained Vienna is using the federal Super Fund, which is financed by companies and corporations operating in the United States that contaminate the land and water with chemicals; they have to pay into the fund to clean up the contaminated sites. Vienna is considered one of these.