Mayor Sylvanis Gunter Jr. said an engineer hired by the village is drawing up the tie-in plan, estimated to cost about $1.2 million, to connect the village to the system by Dec. 24. Gunter said the city has the funds to pay for plans, but will have to seek state grants and other assistance to pay the remainder. “It’s a bad situation,” he said.
OEPA Division of Drinking and Groundwaters chief Michael Baker wrote the village that it must have an alternative supply by Oct. 30, far earlier than the proposed date of year’s end. One option is to connect to another well for temporary use, Baker said, but there are many unanswered questions about well construction and treatment.
Aside from that, Baker said OEPA understands that the village council recently tabled payment to the design engineer, potentially delaying compliance. So far, Baker said, plans sent to the state from the village are incomplete.
Violation of the October deadline could result in the village losing its license to operate a water system. Two of three village wells are not usable because of contamination from the large road salt piles. A third well is going bad. The village is providing at least two gallons of bottled water a day to each household.
The salt piles were installed in the past five years or so. Commodities giant Cargill owns one and Central Salt owns the other. Both are managed by Rod Good, president of Good Trucking. OEPA, who called the situation an emergency, has ordered Good to cease the salt contamination as well as determine how extensive it is. Good didn’t return a call for comment.
A state-funded water protection study in July 2002 informed the village that the area where the piles would later be located needed to be protected. In 2009, OEPA received a complaint that the salt piles had been placed in the sensitive area and issued a notice to the village.
Contact this reporter at
(937) 225-7407 or sbennish
@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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