City of Alliance dinged for water treatment plant error, mails notice

• On March 26, the city's chlorine levels were too low to make required contact with the clearwell at the water treatment plant for about 45 minutes.
• As a result, the city was hit with a violation and residents received a notice to alert them to the issue.
• City officials said the violation did not impact quality or residents. The water is safe.

ALLIANCE − City of Alliance water customers likely got a notice regarding a violation with this month's water bill.

Safety-Service Director Mike Dreger said a "technical" error at the water treatment plant triggered the notice.

He explained that on March 26 the plant was running its ultraviolet oxidation system to remove taste and odor from water due to algae, and, in turn, the activity reduced the amount of chlorine in the water. For about 45 minutes, Dreger said the chlorine was too low to make contact with clearwell for a required contact time.

That was a violation, and the plant's penalty was sending out the notice, Dreger said.

"There is no impact to residents, no fine, and no further action needed," he said. "The was no 'quality violation.' In other words, all required testing was done to ensure our water met the required quality standards, and it did."