Bessemer City issues five water quality notices in four months

Sep 02, 2023

by: Kaci Jones

Posted: Aug 29, 2023 / 07:29 PM EDT

Updated: Aug 30, 2023 / 07:20 AM EDT

BESSEMER CITY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – There are questions about water quality in Bessemer City.

Residents have received five public water notices in four months.

“There is a taste in it. I don’t know, but we don’t drink it here,” Phillip Scates, Bessemer City resident, said.

Scates has lived in the city for nearly 50 years, but recently, he says something changed.

The public works department has issued five public water notices since May. The latest says the city did not meet reporting requirements for Total Organic Carbon.

“I’m sure they’re working on it, but I’m surprised it’s went on for this long,” Scates said. “It was just a third letter we’ve received, and I guess it’s every quarter or something.”

Scates explained he had noticed a change in taste and smell.

“Usually, in the mornings, it tasted bitter. So, I don’t rinse my mouth out with it when I brush my teeth,” Scates said.

Bessemer City Manager Joshua Ross emailed Queen City News about the violation:

“In August 2023, a violation notice was sent to customers to notify them that the city did not meet reporting requirements for Total Organic Carbon (TOC).

North Carolina’s Rules Governing Public Water Systems requires that we comply with DBP precursor removal requirements.

We routinely monitor for the presence of precursors within the water treatment plant(s).

Test results for the period of April 1, 2023, through June 30, 2023, showed that treatment techniques being used have been ineffective in adequately reducing the TOC levels.

The Removal ratio for this monitoring period was 0.86 when the express Running Annual Average (RAA) which does not meet the required removal ratio of 1.00.”

For breaking news sent straight to your inbox >> sign up for QCN Breaking Alerts here.

The Water Plant was undergoing major renovations in April and May 2023, and no samples were collected in these two months, resulting in this violation. Water was being purchased from the City of Gastonia, whose water was tested for TOCs. Water being consumed and used by customers was being tested for TOCs because it came from the City of Gastonia (Two Rivers Utilities).

The Plant was shut down entirely from May 8, 2023, through June 6, 2023. TOCs are measured on a rolling 12-month period. Since we did not take samples during this time, the TOC average ran below 1.00. Bessemer City water is safe for consumption and use. The water processed in our system has remained the same.

We have since sampled TOCs in June and July, and both met the removal ratio. We do not anticipate any future problems meeting our monitoring requirements.

On another note, the Bessemer City Water Treatment Plant is currently undergoing a renovation project that will strengthen our existing triple-redundancy water distribution system.

More information about this project can be found here.

Here’s another story about our water connection to the City of Gastonia (Two Rivers Utilities).

Scates says he hopes the new multimillion-dollar plant fixes the taste and smell of the water, but in the meantime, he will play it safe.

“We buy bottled water, and if I’m gonna put some in frigerator [my wife], she boils it for me and puts it in the frigerator that way,” Scates said.

Get breaking news alerts with the Queen City News mobile app. It’s FREE! Download for iOS or Android

Work is scheduled to be finished on the wastewater plant before the end of the year.

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.