As floods recede, water quality remains a concern

As the state begins its flood recovery efforts anew after heavy rains earlier this week, water systems are still being assessed.

Officials all had one piece of advice in common: when in doubt, play it safe.

Drinking water systems in hard-hit areas were hit with serious damage Wednesday night and Thursday. “If you are on a private well or spring, and think that was flooded, you should assume that your water is contaminated,” said State health commissioner Mark Levine in a press conference Friday morning.

The state Agency of Natural Resources reports boil water notices are active as of Friday afternoon in Plainfield, Barnet, and St. Johnsbury due to main breaks that seriously damaged municipal water systems. Many people in these communities are still without water.

There is also a boil water notice in Barre, but for a different reason, Matt Hunt explained. Hunt, who is a state drinking water community operations supervisor, said that local officials were concerned with the turbidity of Barre’s town water.

Turbidity is an indication of the level of sediment, or other matter, present in a sample of water. In other words, Barre’s water was too cloudy after the floods.

The state Department of Health said in a release on Friday that boiling water for a minute kills bacteria, but that bacteria is not the only concern. “Do not use or boil untested water that is cloudy, full of sediments, or smells like fuel or chemicals,” said commissioner Mark Levine in the statement.

Barre’s measure, nonetheless, “was very precautionary,” said Hunt, who praised local officials for their preparedness and response. He says the water is now likely drinkable again, but that officials were awaiting lab results.

Turbid water has been a problem elsewhere in the state, including in Barton.

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Barton sources its municipal water from the local May Pond, explained state drinking water division director Bryan Redmond via text, which has created a predicament for the town. The pond’s water is so saturated with sediment after the storm that filtering it would take a great deal of already-filtered water.

The problem is, Barton’s water main also has a line break, leaking about 70 gallons a minute, according to Hunt. The town can’t spare much filtered water right now—local officials have issued a water conservation notice for this reason, said Redmond.

In the central Vermont watershed, officials say it’s impossible to trace where pollutants or dangerous objects may have ended up.

“It’s really hard to say right now, like, what the full impact is,” said Stephanie Brackin, a spokesperson for the Agency of Natural Resources.

She urged people to stay out of the water in affected areas. “Chances are, it’s going to have hazards and it’s going to be contaminated.”

Nine wastewater facilities have been damaged, said Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore at a Friday press conference. Centers in Plainfield and Hardwick, she said, have particularly acute structural damage.

Given that so much water processing infrastructure is overwhelmed, Brackin said, contamination concerns extend as far as affected rivers do. For the Missisquoi and Lamoille river valleys, she said, that means all the way to Lake Champlain.

The city of Burlington announced Friday morning that several Lake Champlain beaches had been closed due to suddenly-elevated levels of E. coli bacteria. Alec Kaeding, Burlington’s waterfront and parks operations manager, said he wasn’t sure if the bacteria was related to the flood.

It is, however, the first such measure of the season. “We don’t get too many E. coli closures anymore,” said Kaeding.

Pete LaFlamme, director of the state watershed management division, said that several Vermont communities were still vulnerable to sewer overflows during extreme weather. “Of course, all of those combined sewer overflows trigger during such a heavy rain event,” he said.

“We’re still in the early stages of doing damage assessments,” said LaFlamme. “Just physically reaching some of these locations is still a challenge.”

Disclosure: Bryan Redmond is married to VTDigger CEO Sky Barsch.

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