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CITY OF COLUMBIA 2020 WATER QUALITY REPORT
PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM 4010001 • COLUMBIA, SC • CITY OF COLUMBIA WATER WORKS
The Customer Meter Upgrade Project Hits 100,000 Installations! Columbia Water’s new advanced meter upgrade project hit a milestone when it surpassed 100,000 new meter installations in February 2021. This is about two-thirds of the more than 150,000 meters that will be installed as part of the project, which is scheduled to finish in early 2022. This project will provide customers with fewer estimated bills, real-time alerts about possible leaks, and the ability to better manage water use. If you don’t have a new meter yet, you can visit gis.columbiasc.gov/ami/ to see if your house or business is on the upcoming schedule. If it hasn’t been scheduled yet, please check back at a later time. If you have a new meter, please download our Eye On Water app that allows you to track you water usage in real time and set up leak notifications. Go to columbiascwater.eyeonwater.com/signin for more details.
Columbia Water Begins Testing for PFAS Compounds in Drinking Water PFAS is an acronym for man-made chemicals used globally since the 1940s in a variety of industrial and commercial products. PFAS resist heat and repel oil and water, so they are found in such products as firefighting foams, stain- and water-resistant coatings, and non-stick coatings. The same properties that make PFAS useful for industrial and consumer products make them difficult to degrade and very persistent in the environment, leading to PFAS being found literally everywhere on earth. Because of this persistence, it is not unusual for some PFAS to be found anywhere, including the City’s drinking water. In June of 2020, the South Carolina Department of Health and
Environmental Control (SCDHEC) conducted testing of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at the City of Columbia’s two drinking water treatment plants at Lake Murray and the Columbia Canal as they conducted PFAS sampling at 44 water systems across the state of South Carolina. In an effort to develop reliable information about PFAS in Columbia’s drinking water, Columbia Water is continuing to perform testing for these compounds twice per year. The second set of these additional bi-annual samples was collected in April of 2021. The results of all PFAS testing can be found on our website at www.columbiascwater.net/PFAS.
Columbia Water and FEMA Come to Agreement on Scope of Canal Work The City of Columbia/Columbia Water announced in September 2020 that they have come to a fundamental agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Public Assistance program on the scope of damage to the Columbia Canal from the historic flooding that took place in the Midlands in 2015. This is the culmination of years of negotiations with the federal agency and signals the beginning of the repair process for the canal and hydroelectric plant. FEMA PA is coordinated by the South Carolina Emergency Management Division (SCEMD). Both the City and FEMA have identified approximately $42 million in damages as a result of the 2015 historic floods. The scope of work includes repairing the breach in the canal embankment, fixing other damaged sections of the canal embankment and repairing the hydroelectric plant at the south end of the canal to return green power to the City of Columbia. The length of the remainder of the project has yet to be determined. Additional necessary work that does not fall under FEMA’s scope is replacing the headgates at the north end of the canal. However, a separate federal funding source is being sought for those repairs. “We are excited to finally be moving forward,” said Clint Shealy, Assistant City Manager for Columbia Water. “We appreciate everyone’s patience as we begin this phase of making Columbia whole again from the devastating flood of 2015.” Updates to the project can be followed at www.columbiascwater.net/columbiacanalproject.
For additional information:
City of Columbia Water Quality Complaints, Billing, & Customer Care Center 803-545-3300 customercare@columbiasc.gov columbiascwater.net/customer-care SC DHEC - Bureau of Water 803-898-4300 National Lead Information Clearinghouse 800-424-LEAD Consumer Product Safety Commission 800-638-2772
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