10/26/2023
WT Staff
Safe Drinking Water Act
DWF Profile: Village of Byesville
Winning the battle with by-products of disinfection
Muskingum River Basin - Tuscarawas River - Wills Creek watershed
Owner: local government, established June 1 1977
Location: Byesville, OH Guernsey County
Permit: OH3001212
Water Source: groundwater
Susceptibility rating: high
Note the aquifer is rated high susceptibility for the relatively thin clay layer above the aquifer making the groundwater susceptible to contamination from the surface, however this does not mean that contamination has been found in the groundwater.
Current Notices:
Ohio EPA Public Drinking Water Advisories appears to have rescinded a sensitive persons advisory for Village of Byesville water for exceeding the maximum contaminant level of disinfection by-product total trihalomethane (TTHM), issued in January 2017. TTHM can pose a risk for immune-compromised people over a long term of consumption. The chemical contaminant forms when organic matter in the raw water reacts with the chlorine added for disinfection. The OEPA public drinking water advisory no longer appears on the list at https://epa.ohio.gov/monitor-pollution/maps-and-advisories/drinking-water-advisories. WTOH has asked OEPA to comment, more to follow.
Many smaller public drinking water facilities are challenged to disinfect raw water while keeping the TTHM below the maximum contaminant level. Byesville was knocked along the way for failing to give public notice, and has a consumer confidence rule violation cited on the record with federal EPA.
WTOH spoke with Kendal Weisend, the Superintendant of Byesville water to find out how the community eventually won its battle with TTHM, which at one point in 2019 was 65% higher than the maximum allowed. Weisend explained that Byesville took over the water facility at Cumberland in 2005, located a few miles away. The system came with operational challenges, requiring a number of equipment and process upgrades over the years. Weisand explained that a new mixer, an aerator, re-chlorinator and air stripper have been added to the treatment process allowing for more effective removal of the organic particulates from the raw water and reducing the level of chlorination required in the early phase of treatment. The TTHM levels have been down significantly over the last year. This fall, Byesville no longer appears on the advisory list.
WTOH asked Weisand how they found success where many water operators are still struggling and asked if there was any particular credit to be given. Weisend replied, "Nothing special, we just did what had to be done."
The 2022 Annual Water Quality Report is not posted for the public as of October 23, 2023.
The Village of Byesville 2021 Annual Water Quality Report is available here: https://www.byesvilleoh.gov/2021CCR.pdf
System Type: Community water system
Population Served: Residential 5104
Service Connections: 1649
Sanitary Survey complete: Oct 3, 2022 (State)
Minor deficiencies noted in Distribution, Management-Operation and Finished Water Storage
Recommendations made for Security and Source
Contact: Brennan Dudley tel 740-685-0800
The following information gathered from federal EPA pertains to the quarter ending March 31, 2023
(data last refreshed on EPA database July 18, 2023)
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Non-compliant inspections
(of the previous 12 quarters)
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with Significant Violations
(of the previous 12 quarters)
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Informal
Enforcement Actions
(last 5 yrs)
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Formal
Enforcement Actions
(last 5 years)
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12 out of 12
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0 out of 12
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36
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1
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Non-compliance History:
Maximum Contaminant Level Violation - Stage 2 Disinfectants and Disinfection by-products rule - noted by Ohio EPA in 2017
total trihalomethane measured as high as .132 mg/L over the previous 12 inspection cycels with the Ohio EPA posting a running average during part of 2022 measured .086 mg/L (MCL is .08 mg/L)
Public Notice Rule violation - noted November 26, 2019 - informal action taken - unaddressed
Consumer Confidence Rule violation - noted Sep 14, 2018
Monitoring and Reporting Rule violation - volatile organic chemicals - styrene - noted July 1, 2020 to Sep 30, 2020 - resolved
Significant violations noted in boldface above
Drinking water information provided on this site is aggregated from the federal EPA database, state resources and local government sources where available.
EPA publishes violation and enforcement data quarterly, based on the inspection reports of the previous quarter. Water systems, states and EPA take up to three months to verify this data is accurate and complete.
Specific questions about your local water supply should be directed to the facility.
The EPA safe drinking water facilities data available to the public presents what is known to the government based upon the most recently available information for more than one million regulated facilities. EPA and states inspect a percentage of facilities each year, but many facilities, particularly smaller ones, may not have received a recent inspection. It is possible that facilities do have violations that have not yet been discovered, thus are shown as compliant in the system.
EPA cannot positively state that facilities without violations shown in ECHO are necessarily fully compliant with environmental laws. Additionally, some violations at smaller facilities do not need to be reported from the states to EPA. If ECHO shows a recent inspection and the facility is shown with no violations identified, users of the ECHO site can be more confident that the facility is in compliance with federal programs.
The compliance status of smaller facilities that have not had recent inspections or review by EPA or the states may be unknown or only available via state data systems.
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