Water Director stresses city "has no violations" in regards to water treatment

The city of Folsom continues to grapple with the effects of copper pipe pinhole leaks that have been affecting residential homes for several months. Marcus Yasutake, Environmental and Water Resource director for the city of Folsom, was present at the City Council meeting Tuesday night for another update on the ongoing copper pipe pinhole leak investigation. The presentation covered the most recent findings of consultant companies Black and Veatch and Virginia Tech. "Black and Veatch were really looking at water quality parameters for the city, looking at 10 years worth of city data, looking at the information we provided for state and federal regulatory requirements, are we meeting federal and state drinking water standards (referenced the lead and copper rule that came out in 1986). The second part of that team which was Virginia Tech, they were performing the physical pipe forensics analysis, they were looking at the pipe scale imagery, identifying and determining the associated elemental composition of the pipe scale and what was physically making up the pipe scale that they found inside the pipes that we sent to them, and identifying what percentage of those elements are found in their analysis," said Yasutake. Yasutake highlighted the Lead and Copper Rule and the 1986 Safe Drinking Water Act. The Lead and Copper Rule is a federally-regulated standard that limits the concentration of lead and copper in the public's drinking water. "In 2014, the Lead and Copper Rule was updated to have less than .2-percent lead content, a significant difference from the 8 percent (in earlier years). Because the city of Folsom was doing so well in the lead and copper rule analysis, we were allowed to do tri-annual reporting. We got onto a list where you could do reporting or testing every three years … because of our good reports for the city," said Yasutake. Yasutake shared that recent results for copper testing in 2017 and 2020 were "non detects" as in the results that came back in the 90th percentile showing "no copper in the lab results," said Yasutake. For Lead, the last four rounds (2020 being the most recent) of testing also reflected "non detects." The "key parameters" Black and Veatch analyzed from the historic city data from 2010 to July 2020 were discussed. "Black and Veatch did identify the source water as very pure in terms of low alkalinity, low hardness, low calcium, low total dissolved solids. Chlorine residuals leaving the treatment plant were sufficient to maintain the requirement within the distribution system, that requirement is to be .5 ppm (parts per million) or above, leaving the treatment plant at about 1.1 is sufficient to maintain that residual. They did identify limited buffering capacity (changes in ph) of the city's finish water, due to source water purity," stated Yasutake. The staff report reflected that a pH fluctuation was found and can be affected by season changes, Yasutake shared. "In the summer, the pH is lower; in the winter, you typically have a higher pH in the source water (raw water from Folsom reservoir)," said Yasutake. Virgina Tech was responsible for the pipe scale analysis conducted in a laboratory. A total of eight samples were sent to Virginia Tech. "It shows the composition of the pits essentially and the percent composition by weight. They did conduct a sulfite spot test just to rule out there was not any sulfite reducing bacteria. They were also able to rule out the copper itself was not defectively thin (from a manufacturing stand point). Copper pitting was identified and that they were localized at specific sites (were not large scale), blue green in color (in scale)," said Yasutake. Yasutake showed a breakdown of the consultant's conclusions, including one in particular that was noteworthy. "I think this is really important, the city's treated water meets state and federal regulations. We don't have violations; we aren't delivering water that is not safe. The lead and copper rule compliance is optimal for corrosion control; tests indicate that pits are likely copper oxide. The copper was the main element found in the pitting," said Yasutake. One of the culprits of pitting in the pipes might be from "free Chlorine" in the water. "Free Chlorine in the water (which we physically have) can contribute to pitting with impurities in the pipe or sentiment in the pipe," shared Yasutake. Consultant recommendations to aid in resolving the copper pipe pinhole leaks were to include Orthophosphate to the water treatment process. "On the 8th of October, we started at .1 ppm; on the 15th , we adjusted to .2 ppm, and then this last Thursday we started our last dosage at .3 ppm and that is the highest we will go," said Yasutake. The city will take samples from homes in Folsom's "pressure zones" to make sure the Orthophosphate is doing what they intended it to do. Further monitoring and sampling for aluminum (which was found in the consultant pipe scale analysis in the lab, even though the tests are coming back non detect) was also recommended. Yasutake encouraged residents to report pipe leaks and reach out with any questions. At the city council meeting, residents either spoke in person or called in to share their personal copper pipe pinhole leak stories, with some stating home damages are stemming from the pinhole leaks and costing them thousands in repairs, expenses they feel the city should be responsible for. Little information was shared as to what the future holds for the city's share in the large number of damages that homeowners have endured. Prior to Tuesday's meeting, a closed session was held to discuss possible litigation in the matter, according to the agenda. Details of that meeting are not public and were not shared with the media upon request. "On behalf of the city of Folsom, we are taking the pinhole leak situation very seriously. We are all Folsom residents and all Folsom homeowners. We are moving as quickly as we can to find science-based answers," said Mayor Sarah Aquino. Another report will be available from HDR in the next couple of weeks with further detail, according to city officials.