Oconto Falls Municipal Utilities officials want customers to know their water supply is safe despite a Department of Natural Resources notice that OFMU is in violation of a federal rule.
The Environmental Protection Agency passed lead and copper rule revisions in 2021 that required all water systems to develop an inventory of all water service lines in their jurisdiction and categorize them as lead, galvanized requiring replacement, non-lead or “lead status unknown” within three years.
At the Feb. 11 meeting of the Oconto Falls City Council, utility manager Greg Kuhn said with the help of the Jacobs consulting firm, the city was able to submit the required paperwork listing 1,150 lines just in time to meet the Oct. 16 deadline.
“Part of this paperwork is if we do not know what the service line is, we have to mark it as unknown. When we mark it unknown, we have to give them a reason how we came up with the fact that it’s unknown, in which case you have to select ‘other,’” Kuhn said. “When you select ‘other,’ you then have to go all the way to the end of the spreadsheet and you have to physically type it in ‘no documents.’ I didn’t put in that we didn’t have documentation, and that put us in violation … It’s a simple step I missed, I overlooked that last column.”
The DNR notified the city of the violation Jan. 21, requiring Kuhn to to send out a notice to all customers, post it in several locations and hand-deliver it to the school district, nursing homes and the hospital.
“Failure to report the initial inventory to the state correctly does not create a risk to public health, (but) OFMU is required to inform our customers of this violation and to provide additional information, including what we did and are doing to correct the situation,” the Feb. 7 notice to customers said.
Kuhn said he has been having “multiple conversations” with DNR officials and Jacobs to correct the paperwork.
“I want to make sure I get this right,” he said. “Jacobs is going to double check and make sure we’re checking every box.”
Once the city has a complete inventory, OFMU will seek grant funding and eventually try to get all of the lead and galvanized water pipe replaced, Kuhn said.
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
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