“Nobody could remember a time when those tanks were cleaned,” he said.ĭuring its last scheduled visit in December 2019, the Palm Beach County Department of Health, which inspects water utilities on behalf of the DEP in the county, appeared to miss the problem. Incredulous, he asked staff if anyone even recalled any maintenance. George Gretsas, Delray’s city manager at the time of the incident, said he determined during an internal investigation that there were no records the tank or several others belonging to the city had ever been cleaned. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, for example, says water storage tanks must be inspected and cleaned inside every five years, but it took a flurry of customer complaints and a city investigation to catch the potentially 50-year maintenance gap in Delray Beach. The ASDWA declined to share the state-by-state results of the survey.Įven when states require routine inspections and maintenance, enforcement of these rules can be lax. Of the 41 states that responded to the survey, 37 require visual inspections of the outside of water tanks and towers, but only nine – 22% – require interior inspections needed to check for sediment buildup or if animal carcasses have contaminated the supply. The Association of State Drinking Water Administrators asked its members last year about their water tank regulations. The brown water residents of Delray Beach, Fla., found coming from their taps last year was attributed to sediment that had built up inside a water tower that had no records of being cleaned since 1972. No one tracks how many are related to water tower contamination. Pigeon droppings and other animal excrement have sickened entire communities after literally slipping through cracks.Ĭontaminated tap water causes tens of millions of illnesses each year, experts estimate, contributing to as many as 1,000 American deaths. Inspectors have found bloated snakes, mice and raccoons floating in water storage tanks after passing through small openings and drowning.
An opening as small as a few millimeters could prove the difference between drinking a glass of clean water and one contaminated by insects or animal feces that can cause diarrhea or respiratory infections. They’re also one of the most vulnerable points in a public water supply. In the absence of central oversight, water storage tanks are one of the most visible, yet most vulnerable parts of a water supply system most Americans take for granted - even though experts estimate tens of millions of people get sick every year from their drinking water. Water storage tanks, especially those sitting atop towers emblazoned with logos, serve as the most visible symbol of an amenity most Americans take for granted – clean water for drinking, cooking and bathing. An investigation found no records that the tank had ever been cleaned since it was built. It wasn’t a freak occurrence or the result of some unavoidable problem. The sediment had traveled along with the water into cups, cookware, ice trays and bathtubs.
“You started seeing the ice coming out of the icemaker, and you’re going, ‘What the heck is going on? There is stuff in the frozen water.’”Ĭomplaints to the city prompted the discovery of sediment that had accumulated inside one of the city’s massive water storage tanks. “You looked at it, and it wasn’t clean,” resident Reeve Bright said. In March of last year, residents in the small coastal community of Delray Beach, Florida, noticed something strange about the water coming from their taps.