State: Poway 'Failed To Protect' Water System From Contamination

Speaker 1: 00:00 The city of how we failed to provide pure, wholesome, healthful, and pottable water by delivering untreated storm drain water to customers. That's the exact wording from the state water board in a citation to the city over its recent water woes. This citation includes three violation surrounding the incident that left the city without water for a week last December. The action from the state board also criticizes Poway officials for statements they made to the media at the time about the water crisis. Joining us to talk more about this is KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman, who's covered the Poway water situation since it began. Matt, thanks for joining us. So can you first set us up a, remind us of how this all started? Speaker 2: 00:41 Right. If you remember at the tail end of November last year, um, it was a Friday morning and that's when residents started reporting that they were seeing Brown water coming out of their sinks coming in their bathtubs. You might remember seeing some of those photos on social media. Um, and after that happened, uh, the city of Poway started investigating, um, and they had found out, um, they didn't tell us until later, but they had found out, uh, shortly after that that, uh, one of their overflow systems that was connected to a storm drain got stuck. We later found out that a rope actually got stuck in their pow, he says they don't know how the rope got there. Um, but that basically, um, left this door ajar just enough. So that storm water, we just got a big storm. Um, so a lot of storm water float into basically a treated reservoir. And that's why people were seeing that Brown water. Uh, the city of Poway issued a precautionary boil water notice. The state got involved in basically that lasted for a week until, um, the city, um, and the state could verify that the water was actually safe cause it was contaminated by that storm water. Um, and during that time to, you know, 200 businesses had the clothes, a handful were able to reopen, but really not, not a whole lot. Speaker 1: 01:42 So the state water board issued three violations against the city. What do those violations cover specifically? Speaker 2: 01:47 They cited them for three things. I mean basically for Val, uh, for violating California code of regulations. Um, the first one is that how we failed to protect its public water system from backflow contamination. The second one is that Poway and you talked about this earlier, failed to provide pure, wholesome, healthful and potable water. Basically clean water. They failed to do that. And the third one, um, is in reference to that story that the KPBS broke is that, um, state regulations say that already treated water basically Poway Clearwell they call it should not be connected directly to storm drains and they are connected to storm drain. So that, that was the third thing, uh, that they found them in violation for. Speaker 1: 02:21 You've reported that the repairs to the system are going to cost a lot of money. Has the city begun that process yet? Speaker 2: 02:27 Right, yeah, this, the state official, when we, when we had this store, he described it as a multimillion dollar capital improvement project. Um, so basically the city already made the short term fixes, right? I mean that, that thing with the rope that got stuck and left a jar about an inch and all the water pour through. They've since bolted that down so that it cannot open. So the short term fixes done. But now we have this, you know, what's described as a multimillion dollar capital improvement project. Part of this citation actually includes markers where they have to submit design plans. I mean, you know, by April 20, 20 submitted preliminary engineering report Clearwell bypass. So I'm part of the citation has other triggers where they're asking them to prepare this stuff. The sort of interesting part here is that the city of Poway, they can actually appeal this decision and they have some time to do that. Speaker 2: 03:09 I've reached out to them yesterday and they said that they're still evaluating everything and seeing how they're going to move forward. They want to talk to their city council. Um, just as someone who has to wonder, you have to think of some of these triggers in terms of, you know, we want a design plan by this day. You know, we want this by this date. You have to wonder if some of that, um, that they're hesitant to because, um, that's going to cost money. They're going to have to pay some money for someone to do this design study. Um, they, the city did say is going to go before the city council, so it's a big decision for them to make. So we'll see if they, um, sort of accept the citation with these, uh, directives in here, um, or if they, um, try to fight it. Speaker 1: 03:41 And the state water board also criticized Poway officials for statements made while the crisis was unfolding during the weekend, December when the water was shut off. At least part of that criticism is no doubt due to a statement made to you by Poway may or Steve Voss. Uh, let's hear exactly what the mayor told you back then. We continually have great test results. I'm drinking the water when it gets us lifted. So, Matt, what do you make of that? Speaker 2: 04:06 Right. I mean, so when he made that statement, I mean he had said it to a couple of other stations before too. And I mean you can sort of see these sort of questioning, you know, the bureaucracy of Sacramento. I think you put it in another interview. Um, that, you know, the, he's seeing that the city's getting great testing results and we're just kind of waiting for Sacramento to lift this cause we're ready to go now. Um, the state kinda hit them hard on this saying, you know, and any water quality emergency that, you know, there needs to be clear and consistent communication, um, from the state and from the city. Um, and they sort of directed them, um, to the, you know, they said the city should ensure that its communications, uh, comply with requirements and they listed some state code. So they're definitely not, they didn't call out Steve Vos specifically, but they said statements made to the media. Um, you know, seemed to contradict what we were saying. Um, and that, you know, that that's a concern for the public because, um, you know, they say right here at risk confusing the public about the public health impacts of the, of this contamination. Speaker 1: 04:55 A number of claims had been filed on behalf of businesses that lost money during the week. They had to remain closed. What's the status of that? And have Poway officials commented on them at all. Speaker 2: 05:04 Right. And so when we talk about claims, we're talking about a city process. So basically anyone who was affected by this, I mean, I think the city says that they have, you know, almost 1400, um, water connections. Water customers are so sorry, 14,000 water customers I should say. Um, basically they can all file a claim. I mean, last time I checked when we, um, got a public records request from the city, they had four of them. Um, people asking for just a couple of hundred dollars to replace a filter in their fridge that they have for water cause they're unsure if it's contaminated or not. Um, whereas some businesses are asking for, you know, over $10,000 in lost wages, lost food. Um, and this is a long process. They have six months to file these claims. Um, we reached out to the city, they said that they are evaluating these claims and they want to let people know that it is going to take a while for them to go through these. Uh, they are encouraging people to ask their insurance first if they're covered. Um, but a lot of people don't have boil water notices written into their insurances. Um, so that's why a lot of these businesses aren't, are not covered here. Speaker 1: 05:57 I've been speaking with KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman. Matt. Thank you. Thanks Jade.