EMAIL TO WATER DEPARTMENT...updated w/answer
1st update: I received a one line answer to my questions and concerns. You be the judge...
A Message from the Water System Manager,
Many Surfside HOA water customers may have noticed a milky color in their tap water. The milky color is the result of small air bubbles entrained in the water; these air bubbles are the result of adding air to the water produced from the Association’s wells. Air is currently being added to the water to increase dissolved oxygen in order to enhance treatment of disinfection byproducts and to reduce color in the water delivered to Surfside customers.
Thank you, Gil Gonzalez, WSM, Surfside & Joe Plahuta, P.E Gray & Osborne, Inc.
Our cement water storage reservoirs tend to build up higher temperature water. That with shallow in ground supply lines also adds to higher water temperatures. When Bill Neal and April Garcia were here, we got regular water reports each month and rapid response to concerns and questions. The best way to quell false rumors and information, is with factual information. That is needed now.
52 comments:
I’m sincerely hoping with a new board of trustees, we can have an in-depth discussion about our water system. Should we really be in the water business? We are the size of many small towns and maybe time to go to outside sources?
One thing for certain, it needs to be discussed
But Gary W is an engineer and touts that he knows everything about our water system from a technical aspect. You telling me wearing that striped railroad cap and overalls doesn't count?
And we know “he shall not be named” always touted this as a water company first, HOA second😂
They do have an in depth discussion every month at the Water System Planning committee meeting, second Thursday of the month at 10 am,. Please come down and join them
I’m referring to the members!
I live out of town and can not attend on my work day of Thursday. Are there committee minutes?
All volunteers are members, so technically it is a member discussion . All minutes are posted to the website for everyone to review.
And where do you think we are going to get water from? North Beach water doesn't even come up to 272nd?? Do you know how much N.B. water charges are? Sounds like you definitely need to come to this committee meeting so you have a better understanding of the water.
I have read the water committee minutes. They are fairly detailed and informative. I have no doubt that the volunteers on this committee do their very best to educate themselves and make informed decisions. But running a water district is no small task. Seems our water quality is not what is used to be. There are multiple reasons for this. Of late, the water is very unsatisfactory and does make me contemplate whether or not we are in over our heads.
The Dept. Of Health tests our water at a minimum, monthly. If there was any water quality issues we would be hearing from them, no doubt.
They do not test our water. WE test our water and send them the results. After a break, we are required to test. Warm water and air problems should require a test. Do you trust our system of testing and reporting?
BS 2:17 Do you really think we disclose everything to the DOH? If they don't know, we ain't going to hear from them. Think they will know about our milky water? This should be reported to the DOH and demand they come in and do water sample tests from multiple locations.
I do not trust our testing and reporting. I do not trust the water quality enough to ever drink or cook with it. I believe the board and committee members and the water department employees are doing their best to resolve the issues. Unfortunately, I just don't think they have the expertise needed to manage the system properly. If they did, we wouldn't be having all these problems.
from what I read from Professor Google, milky, cloudy water is
"Milky water, also known as cloudy water or white water can be caused by air and water blending together in your residential pipes or main supply. This is often due to a tear in the pipe, which pulls in additional air. ... These air bubbles are what give water its milky appearance."
I have been experiencing this as well but don't notice a taste difference. I do not believe we should be turning the water into a HOA political issue as it would effect everyone involved. I do believe the County Health department would supersede anything Surfside has in place aside from the State and local government requirements/regulations should a defect occur in our water system. It would take an extremely sinister, diabolical, anti human to tamper with any samples sent in for testing.
Please refrain from creating conspiracy theories about our water system. This is one area I want to see complete honest transparency.
If you live at the end of a water line, you may experience a lesser quality water supply, especially if many houses on that line are vacation homes with minimal occupancy. It would benefit you to speak with the water employees when you see them out and about or give them a call. I find them to be friendly and helpful with any questions you may have. City water systems have problems too, you just don't know or hear about them as much. Additionally, that city water is very chemical laden to make it safe. Long beach water smells and tastes like musty algae in the summer, we are pretty lucky really.
Give the water employees a chance. Maybe the line on your street needs to be blown out.
OMG 2:48 You must be new here. The water program with the pipe replacement, violations and fines, has been our biggest lack of "honest transparency" for years and it continues today.
What makes me believe that Gary Williams was some how connected to the grounding of the boeing 737 the last 3 years. Its management akin to no permits, asbestos fines, bad water, paving a rv lot for what purpose? This current board has mismanaged this for the last three years and to hear them speak we need them for another 3 years. Oh I forgot Deleest worked for Boeing too.
2:58, so much drama, and yet, no one has died. Give me a break, this isn't Flint. I don't deal well with all that and don't believe people get up every morning to do bad. Get a filtration system at your house like most people and move on with your life. I've had way worse in big cities, including Long Beach.
Cant undo whats been done.
Lets move forward and stop living in the past. Water seems pretty good to me and no one gets sick.
there are so many toxins and microplastics in bottle water, I avoid it at all costs, not to mention the pollution the empty bottle creates. I pick up hundreds of discarded plastic bottles off the beach every spring and hundreds might just be an underestimate. I'll take tap water from any source any day over bottled water. It's just a big money making scheme causing large pollution to body and earth.
Oysterville was on mandatory boil water, so water issues aren't only a Surfside problem.
3:01
Seriously? You took time out of your day to write THAT?
This may seem a bit nitpicky but I prefer my water to be clear not yellow or white. And I've lived in some places where the water didn't taste that great but at least it was clear. Have to take issue with the comment "no one has dies" and "no one gets sick". Is that the measure of whether or not we are doing a good enough job with the water department? Let's just say it's all fine until we get sick or die?
@5:12 It means making a mountain out of mole hill. This is 2021 and safety measures have improved since the 50's and 60's. I have talked with many water employees and they do not take their responsibilities lightly. For people to continuously criticize their efforts to maintain safe potable water is insulting to say the least. So yeah, until one of you can show me an analysis, from your tap, that the water is unsafe, your complaints seem petty and unwarranted. There's is much to be disappointed with in this HOA but I hardly find the water to be one of them. They are working on the piping situation but we do live on a sand bar and the ground is continually moving so breaks are going to happen. If bad pipes were used, it's in the past and nothing can be done except remediation. Where I come from it's called "sucking it up and fixing it". There's people willing to help you with your first world problem, just call them and they will come by, but I guess complaining is more fun for you.
As I have said before, I am disappointed on so many levels with this HOA, so much so I will never live in another one. But the water is the ONE exception. Not only is it super cheap, it's not hard water, laden with chemicals galore, staining everything in the house which cannot be scrubbed off. If your water is yellow, you might have a problem with the personal pipes in your home or as a previous person said, you may be at the end of a line and need a line blow out. You obviously have been blessed with crystal clear pure water throughout your entire lifetime if this bad for you.
649 - glad you've been so happy with water that looks like it's been used.
It's just another example of indifference by the Board to deal with anything that doesn't affect their self interest. There is no one on that Board worthy of re-election.
Wait, are you thinking that everyone who has ever worked for or is currently working for the water dept is involved with a cover up and letting the entire community be poisoned by the water? And this has been going on for years and years and E.V.E.R.Y.O.N.E. is involved? That's dark dude, you might want to seek some kind of counseling or better yet, just get a filter. smh.......
753 - face reality, as it comes out of your tap! This water fails on all aspects of taste, appearance, and even smell.
They can trot out all the reports they want, but these basic tests at the tap fail consistently. Fail so badly that I have put over $900 into a water filtration system for my home. That's my vote of confidence for our board.
How come the office employees drink water from a 5 gallon water bottle that is delivered by another water company? Make you wonder what we are drinking.
That's pretty common practice in most offices to have bottled water. Especially if there's no drinking fountain available. I have always had clear water, but my home is newer, I am in an area with a lot of full timers, and I use all the water from every spigot for various things. Google says yellow water is rust, sediment, or other naturally occurring events in the water line and is safe.
I recommend using the water in your home from every spigot at least once a week. See if things improve. There might also be some corrosion happening if your home is older, or an original home in Surfside. There may be some galvanized pipe starting to corrode.
well, after reading all these water related remarks, I'm feeling a little dumber now
My water is still milky looking and warm with pressure up and down. Is this the new normal? Color in water won't hurt you? Is this what we get for what we pay? What do we have to do to get a decent drink of water? I am sick of this place and the fools who run it. I make a motion to remove the entire board. As Scott would say.."Do I have a second"?
Everyone has different expectations I guess and some people just come to the blog to complain and argue.
One person feels dumber, another feels completely helpless, one tries to give suggestions on how to help, someone else just gets snarky and mean.
I get agitated at the people who live here. I have never seen such utter helplessness in my life. You need to be a little self reliant in smaller towns and if you complain about everything, people stop listening.
CALL THE OFFICE 360-665-4171
Here is the message posted on the website about the milky water. Very helpful information. Unfortunately, as usual, this HOA's idea of communicating is to ask their members to go hunting for it. Not complaining, just simply stating that water quality is an important issue and an ALL member email to inform would be greatly appreciated. Even better would have been an email with the following info BEFORE the air was added.
A Message from the Water System Manager,
Many Surfside HOA water customers may have noticed a milky color in their tap water. The milky color is the result of small air bubbles entrained in the water; these air bubbles are the result of adding air to the water produced from the Association’s wells. Air is currently being added to the water to increase dissolved oxygen in order to enhance treatment of disinfection byproducts and to reduce color in the water delivered to Surfside customers.
Thank you, Gil Gonzalez, WSM, Surfside & Joe Plahuta, P.E Gray & Osborne, Inc.
And how did that work? thank you Gil and Joe Plahuta for the enhanced treatment and clear water.
Thank you Jack's and Okies for the clear clean bottled water.
How long will the water be milky before results are noted? Water has been very yellow so will be interesting to see if this works for that problem.
Surfside yellow water is and has been caused by tanin's from the wells. A by product of the breakdown of vegetation. Got better when new filtration started, but since the medium is not being replaced as per guidelines do to the high cost. Southbend tried this system n scrapped it.i worked for the water dept n was screwed via Kirby. Was exposed too mass asbestos. So cant say i'm a fan. April was the best and most honest employee n she left. Gil a good guy, but is a go along too get along. Btw? Who replaced Bill? If not replaced why?
Calling the HOA office with questions is a joke.
If you are saying having a bottled water system delivered in a small HOA office is the same as any other business you are wrong.
We as members are paying for a water service for them thats not cheap. The other issue is why are they not drinking our safe, wonderful tasting water out of a reusable cup? Look at the whole picture here folks, it's not only about the water it's also about wasting our money! Heck next we will be catering meals for them too!
Really? I mean really? I'm all against this current BOT but I will never, and I mean never, expect our employees, volunteers or any guest in the office go get a drink of water out of the bathroom. There's really just something wrong with people who are so damned cheap. And I have been around the block in the last three decades working in offices. Obviously YOU HAVE NOT. There are water dispensers in many waiting rooms and most employee break rooms around this nation. You have no idea how much this costs. They might even go purchase the water themselves, in their own vehicle, and refill the bottle at a filling station, OH MY, GASP. This is a minimal expense if we do pay for it and you just look cruel. We really do have bigger problems here at this HOA.
Get out a little more, stay focused on some of the bigger issues, you sound like a complete ridiculous jerk!
In shared spaces, one should not get their drinking water from the same faucet used for washing hands......especially a bathroom faucet. I want the office staff to have bottled water because I don't want them to drink Surfside water. I never drink it, why should I expect them to drink it? We can save a whole lot more money by not having the ill advised sheriff contract, or the compliance policeman. As for the water, well it seems hopeless at this point. It's a never ending money pit.
I drink the water here. Compared to all the other trash I put in my body, the water is least of my worries.
But yeah, we always had a big blue water dispenser at work. That's where all the gossip happened too! At the water cooler and the coffee pot.
It's not expensive, take a chill pill.
Do we need a committee, the board or a budget item to install a drinking fountain at the office. It could also have a valve for filling the coffee pot or cups. There is a sprinkler system there now. Looks like a safety issue that can be fixed.
Sure, I'm all for a committee. I'll bring the Doritos, taco bell, cigarettes, beer, hot dogs, oh hell the marijuana and McDonalds, because in some people's minds, all those things are safer than the water here. Give me a break. Human's fill their bodies with awful chemicals on a daily basis. I guess it's just easier to bitch and moan here on the blog.
Last office I worked in, not only did we have a water tank and coffee, we also had a dishwasher AND a refrigerator. We had two commercial microwaves as well. Oh, and that was a government agency, guess who paid for it? That's right, YOU.
I guess we should ban all the water in the teacher's lounges. Hey, the last place I lived, the school superintendent even had a private bathroom with a shower installed in his office. I'm pretty sure I know who paid for that!
You are way off base if you think a little fresh water is out of line.
It's always one extreme or the other with almost every topic on this blog. I actually don't fill my body with all the things listed above. And I would like to have water that is not yellow or white. I understand the challenges in achieving that goal and also why water quality is so important to lots of folks. Why is it wrong for people to express their concerns [characterized by some as birching and complaining] about the water quality?
I do know coming on this blog to announce your problems doesn't solve the problem. I would rather see a person take action on their problem and report back here the results of said action. Otherwise, I can see where it would be viewed as complaining, whining, bitching or whatever. No result other than the 'vent' component will get accomplished here. But that's just my opinion, which, no one cares about either.
It is what it is.........
https://www.surfsideonline.org/surfside-water-department/
http://northbeachwater.com/
Coming on this blog informs the BOT, committee members and staff as to how members are viewing certain aspects of the association since we know they monitor this blog at the very least. Suspect some most likely are posting here too. I think the result is to at least know they are hearing the opinions of members. Whether or not they swayed or act upon that information is debatable.
I see things talked about on here that I knew nothing about. I guess if you don't know you have a problem, your not bothered by it. We members should not have to go to a blog to know what is happening and what is being done. Must be some truth here, or why would there be those who keep coming on here trying to run down everyone and what is said?
@12:36
My whole point of all of this is that if they say the water is safe for the members why not put a sink in the break room for them to use. Someone had said that they seen water delivered to the HOA.
Put your head in the freezer and calm the crap down!
You know nothing about me to be making judgment.
If you have not noticed on almost every subject the HOA is spending like crazy and from my understanding that is all money that the members pay. Not the HOA staff or HOA bot themselves!
Keep thinking that everything is great in surfside and things should not change, keep drinking our wonderful great tasting, beautiful crisp clean not smelling water!
They don't have a "break room". But, we have a Compliance Enforcer Office. Maybe they could use that.
Our compliance officer is sure going to be busy this weekend, going around writing up all the rv violations, fire works, etc..Oh! that;s right, they don't work weekends. Just part time. At least we got the sheriff up her. SURE> NOT
815 - yes, let's keep going the way we are, with division, dirty water and self interest leading the topics.
Remember, to do that, we need to re-elect the same knuckleheads that are there now.
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