— from Paul Kamin, General Manager, Eastsound Water Users Association —
Eastsound Waterhas recently achieved a State of Washington Water Treatment FIRST.
During the period of Sept 11-13 Eastsound Water underwent an extensive review of our Purdue treatment plan by contractors for both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and State Department of Health. Eastsound Water volunteered for this “Comprehensive Performance Evaluation”. The evaluation was designed to examine “design, administration, operations, and maintenance” of the system. Over 100 hours of staff time went into this evaluation process, which Eastsound Water staff welcomed as a learning opportunity. Eastsound Water’s review team was the same folks EPA called in to evaluate what went wrong with the Flint, Michigan water treatment crisis.
In total 50 “performance limiting factors” we examined and scored as having MAJOR EFFECT, MODERATE EFFECT or MINOR EFFECT. Eastsound Water was found to have NO PERFORMANCE LIMITING FACTORS. Derek Pehl, the Assistant Director at the State Department of Health and Regional Engineer Steve Deem both have reached out to say that in decades of sponsoring the “Comprehensive Performance Review” (CPE) program that Eastsound Water is the first ever with NO PERFORMANCE LIMITING FACTORS!
The CPE process included the following:
- 1 hour individual interviews with each staff member and a board member.
- Review of 3 years’ worth of Purdue Treatment plant monitoring data.
- Review of Eastsound Water financial data.
- Inspection of the water treatment process, and each piece of equipment from source to first customer.
- Extensive testing of the water treatment plant’s filter performance.
- Examination of the accuracy of all data collection instruments.
- Review of all standard operating procedures, and operation manuals.
Other quotes from the final report submitted to staff and Eastsound Water Board included;
- “Data presented was fully complete, confirmed accurate and deemed viable.”
- “Raw water quality was currently ideal”. (Raw water is the water coming into the treatment plant from the lake. This means the watershed is well protected, and the lake has very few contaminants).
- “Chlorine disinfection contact time is being met 100% of the time”. (All water is fully disinfected in all circumstances)“The treatment plant filter media is clearly being well cleaned and maintained. Filter media volume and stratification was found to be as per original design.” (Plant is 35 years old)
- “The length of the filter backwash process was perfect.” (Backwash fully cleaned the filter media but used no more water than needed)The performance assessment data and information gather during this evaluation process indicated that the plant is optimized and very well managed, maintained, and operated.”
- “The Purdue Plant is well managed. Performance measures, including the WA DOH Treatment Plant Optimization Goals, have been adopted, strived for and consistently achieved.”
- “The Eastsound Staff is unusually talented, and technically competent. Management is committed to devoting man hours to efforts to improve efficiency results, public health protection, and water conservation.”
- “The General Manager has everyone working as a team to provide high levels of service and continuing improvement.”
- “The Eastsound Water treatment plant was determined to be “FULLY OPTIMIZED”
The evaluators used the phrase “the clearer the water is, the safer it is”. The “cleanliness” of water is measured by a turbidity analyzer which sends a highly calibrated beam of light through a water sample and measures to clarity of the water. Even invisible particles in the water reflect some of the light, and a light sensor measures how much light is lost through the water sample. The “turbidity” (water clarity) is measured in NTU’s (Nephelometric Turbidity Units)
The Maximum allowable potable water turbidity is 1.0 NTU. Eastound Water has committed to ever exceeding 0.3 NTU (33% of the state standard). This review has found that over the past 5 years Eastsound Water has not exceeded 0.1 NTU, which is only 10% of the allowable limit. Commonly Eastsound’s Purdue Treatment Plant is producing water in the 0.02 to 0.03 NTU range, only 2-3% of the State’s allowable limit. Again, “the clearer the water is, the safer it is.”
The full CPE Report from Sleeping Giant Consultants, and more information on this process is available here EastsoundCPEReport2017Final
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Kudo’s to EWUA for their management of our precious resource! The conscientious efforts from Paul and his staff ensure health and give us peace of mind for something we often take for granted. Keep up the good work. THANK YOU!
Nice work EWUA Staff…and thanks Paul for bringing this to the attention of the membership & community at large.
I have dealt with performance review people and it is their job to find problems and if they look around they usually find some. It appears they looked hard and found the work you have done to be excellent. Well done. Congratulations Paul and team.
Paul,
Many thanks for the consistent and careful work of you and your team through the years.
Thank-you for sharing this good news.
Good news can be hard to come by these days.
Congratulations and thank you to Paul Kamin and EWUA Staff for caring about our water quality and doing all you can to assure not only water quality, but safety from outside pollutant contamination.
What I see is that Paul is there for us – as in when the propane and gasoline spills happened on Seaview St, and Paul was there for the membership all the way, both with information and coming to bat with officials to ensure our safety. I feel confident that our water is cared for in as respectful way as possible. I thank and appreciate you.
I hardly hate to write this next thing – but can anything be done to lessen the amount of chlorine or whatever chemicals are being used to treat the water? It seems to hit all at once; and for a couple days, the water will taste and smell really badly of chlorine and other substances that smell “chemical.” That smell and taste usually dissapate within a day or two, but I’m just wondering if something more gradual is possible – or how that works, regarding treatment of our water. Perhaps an educational guest-ed from Paul or Staff would help answer these questions? Thank you.