Bridgeport, W.VA. – The Bridgeport Utility Board has successfully met the monitoring requirements for lead and copper in the water system and restored as a low monitoring utility system.
Beth Fox
In the summer monitoring testing of 2021, three high lead level cases were found in the Water Primary Provider Clarksburg Water System for the Bridgeport community. The Clarksburg region was followed in the Clarksburg region after increased testing, booted water, and emergency service line replacement.
Prior to searching, according to the director of engineering and public utilities Bath Fox, every three years 30 houses were tested and tested for the presence of copper.
The West Virginia Department of Health implemented an increased testing regime after the discovery. Fox said that the increased test mandate was up to 60 houses every six months.
“Get samples from places across the city,” said Fox. “This customers needed to take their first flush from Spigot in the morning, and our employees collected them the same morning and sent them for testing.”
The samples were chosen mainly based on the age of the neighborhood or the age of the materials used in homes. Fox stated that most of the tested areas were neighborhoods built before 1980.
“Select the areas of the city where homes were built before a certain year, in homes where you have an idea that uses leads, solder fittings, or lead lines,” said Fox.
The change allows the Bridgeport Utility Board to return to the testing program of 30 households every three years after an increased test in three years.
“After the rules implemented in the last three years, we were definitely able to meet the needs of the Health Department, and they approved us to return to their original monitoring schedule,” Fox said.
Fox said that the Bridgeport Distribution System is now to code with the final upgrade a few years ago. Fox said that work would be transferred to services and neighborhoods in more business-general fashion.
“Through the city, perhaps five or six years ago, we had changed our last section which we knew that our main distribution system has lead fittings,” Fox said. “Through the Bridgeport, we know that our lines are independent and clear.”
Fox said that as a small utility they know most of the customers and they have actually appreciated their patience in the last three years.
“Through all this we have definitely developed close ties with our customers, and we hope that we have increased their confidence and they can trust us as our system provider to give them the best water,” Fox said.
Earlier this month, American senator Shelley Moore Capito, Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee member and member of the Senate Appropriation Committee announced a $ 6.88 million in funding to Clarksburg Jal Board from EPA. This money will work on a transmission line, West Pike Street on the Van Bureauran Street, and will serve as a service line in Nortews, Rosebad and Steel’s communities.