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Dozens of Mountain View residents are without safe drinking water a week after a water main was contaminated in the Cuesta Park neighborhood. City officials say the situation is expected to last at least until Sunday, May 3.
Mountain View declared a state of emergency on April 25, a day after C2R Engineering, a city contractor, breached a water main at the corner of Bonita Avenue and Cuesta Drive, causing a cement slurry mix to come into contact with the main water supply.
About 67 households have been impacted by the breach. The city issued a “do not use water” notice to affected residents last week and told them not to drink or use the water for purposes other than flushing toilets. On Wednesday, the city partially lifted the restriction saying that residents could water their lawns and nonedible plants.
When testing the water, two of five samples came back positive for coliforms, a group of bacteria that is typically harmless. However, it can indicate the presence of other harmful organisms in the water supply, according to a fact sheet from the California State Water Resources Control Board.
The city is now stepping up efforts to flush out the bacteria from the pipes, according to Mike Vasquez, the city’s utility services manager.
“What the residents around here are probably going to notice over the next couple days is more construction,” Vasquez said at a Thursday press conference. “We’re doing pipe inspections. We’re looking at bringing in other equipment for more aggressive flushing.”
Mountain View cannot lift the do-not-use-water order until cleared by state regulators.
“It is dependent on what the state determines,” city spokesperson Lenka Wright said. “At this time, the earliest would be Sunday.”
The streets affected by the current restrictions include portions of Cuesta Drive, Leona Lane, Montalto Drive, Drucilla Drive and Carla Court.
Currently, there is no timeline for lifting the order, according to Blair Robertson, a state Water Board spokesperson. She told the Voice that tests are currently “underway to determine if the water samples are clear of chemical contamination” from the concrete.
If the samples are clear, then the order could be reduced from “do not use” to a “boil water notice,” Robertson said in an email. To lift the boil water notice, it’s typical “to have two tests that are clear of the coliform currently shown in samples and those tests are generally conducted 24 hours apart,” she wrote. Once that is clear, the boil water notice could be lifted.
The emergency declaration will allow the city to seek reimbursement from the state and federal government for expenses related to the water main breach. The city also is continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the water main breach, according to Wright.
“We are taking appropriate steps to preserve all available legal options, including the possibility of a lawsuit,” she said in an email. “However, the review is still ongoing, and the city will determine the appropriate course of action based on the results of that review.”
Wright added that the city has not received any reports of residents suffering from illnesses related to the water main breach.
“This is an extraordinary situation that we’re experiencing here in Mountain View for this affected neighborhood,” Wright said at the Thursday press conference. “We understand how challenging this is, and we are doing all that we can to help … But for the rest of Mountain View, the water is safe to drink.”
Robertson also described the contamination incident as something not typically seen in California.
“To the best of our knowledge, this was an unusual event and has not occurred elsewhere,” she said.
For updates and more information about resources available for affected residents, including hotel and shower options, visit the city’s website.
Excellent continued reporting on the extended local emergency. Great quotes from the local officials.
According to the internet, concrete slurry is apparently considered hazardous waste [0, 1, 2]. So, the lack of available water to ~67 households, addition to the (potential) hazardous waste contamination, seems to explain the emergency scenario more clearly, perhaps.
One concerning element in concrete slurry reportedly from research vis a vis the EPA can be chromium [2], apparently.
The bacteria reportedly found in some of the tests to date may be a side effect in my view. Microorganisms can consume and digest and break down various kinds of hazardous materials before returning those transformed materials nature in more useful form, to be reused. A “canary in the coal mine” if you will.
Beyond just bacteria (which may themselves contain whatever they consumed), I would be also be concerned about whatever materials and additives were in the concrete that got broken down and included in the slurry that (may have or did — do we know?) contact the water main water.
Will the entire series of (state, county, local) water testing reports be made available to the Mountain View residents? Where will they be published? Will FOIA requests be necessary, or will the prior and future test results and water reports from this process be forthcoming?
In my opinion, people should be able to see the initial full water test results, and the results over time as flushing continues, and finally the series of eventual “acceptable” full reports on all of the materials tested for, and their parts per million or parts per billion, (and also therefore the contaminants NOT tested for), ought to be available, before people start drinking, cooking with, and washing/bathing in that water again. Many of the residents are surely educated enough to read and understand such test results and reports directly.
Yes, we can trust the officials have this covered. Thank you for your dedication and hard work. Still, the more light there is, the easier it is to ensure trust and confidence, especially after such a rare incident.
Keep the updates coming. Hopefully the people can have their water on safely again, soon.
[0] https://shuntool.com/article/is-concrete-slurry-hazardous-waste
[1] https://blog.bartellglobal.com/how-to-dispose-of-concrete-slurry-correctly
[2] https://www.slurrytubusa.com/site/blog/2024/11/18/environmental-impacts-cement-slurry
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/rvef2c/concrete_washout_ground_water_contaminant/