Residents of Scotia were under a boil water advisory for six days after turbidity spiked in the water treatment system.

The advisory was lifted Tuesday after operator efforts to flush the system resulted in tests coming back within regulatory limits — but structural problems with old water infrastructure remain.

The state water board is pushing for the district to get funding for infrastructure replacement.

The state Water Board, which regulates drinking water, got involved Wednesday when the Scotia Community Services District (SCSD) reported a turbidity of 16 Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU) measured at the plant. This is about 50 times above the state’s standard of 0.3 or below.

This level of turbidity, a measure of water clarity, “was really high,” said Barry Sutter, Klamath District Engineer for the water board, prompting an immediate response.

Turbidity in drinking water is a concern, he explains, because some parasites like Cryptosporidium are resistant to chlorination and must be physically removed or treated with UV. He noted regulations surrounding turbidity were tightened after the 1993 Milwaukee Cryptosporidiosis outbreak that affected hundreds of thousands of residents and killed 69.

Humboldt County Public Health is not aware of any illnesses associated with Scotia’s water disruption, a spokesperson told the Outpost in an email.

Within the hour, the water board ordered SCSD to issue a boil water advisory to residents in the district. About 680 residents were told to only use boiled  or bottled water for drinking and cooking.

SCSD was also mandated by the state to keep chlorine residual at 2 parts per million while the notice was in effect.

In a community advisory, the SCSD said complaints about cloudy or turbid water had begun two days before the notice was issued. But levels at the plant were within California State mandated levels until Wednesday, March 4, when turbidity spiked, according to SCSD.

As detailed in a SCSD update, work included inspecting parts of the plant, which the district plans to ultimately replace.

“Filter inspection showed they were working properly. The next step was to drain and clean the sediment settling tank. Our third action was to adjust the treatment processes. As a result, the turbidity level at the Water Treatment plant dropped significantly to California State mandated requirement,” a March 6 update noted.

The issue causing the turbidity was under control by the next day, but due to concern that turbid water was still in the system, operators needed to flush it multiple times, according to Sutter, causing the week-long notice.

Now, the District is reporting to the water board that turbidity is meeting the performance standard below 0.3 (NTU). Tests came back within regulatory levels and the water board lifted the order Tuesday.

Scotia Community Services District believes the cause of the turbidity spike was a filter issue, according to the state water board. Scotia Community Services District staff did not want to comment on specifics at this time.

“The notice has been lifted and the problem has been corrected,” said Steve Coppini, General Manager of SCSD, when asked for comment.

Sutter said old infrastructure failing is nothing new for rural, disadvantaged communities in northern California.

“The filters are so old, they don’t have a lot of the features that new filters have,” said Sutter.

SCSD’s website notes some of the system components were built and installed as early as the 1930s.

Scotia’s water system is considered “failing” by the State Water Board’s Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience Drinking Water program. According to Blair Robertson, a spokesperson for the Water Board, the system was designated as failing once the Boil Water Notice was issued.

“A system is considered ‘failing’ when it has an unresolved treatment technique issue, such as relying on unreliable filtration or having an open violation in the State database,” wrote Robertson in an email to the Outpost. 

The water board aims to keep Scotia on the “failing” list for the time being, he said.

“That designation is primarily used to prioritize funding projects – in this case, to replace the old filters with new filters meeting our current standards. The water can otherwise be used normally by the public now that the boil water notice has been lifted,” he said.

Overall, Sutter pointed out the system is using old technology, and  compared to to trying to keep an old car on the road.

He said the operators are doing great considering what they have. 

“We’ve seen old infrastructure fail before, and it fails dramatically, and that’s what happened in this case. So we don’t have a lot of confidence in the filter system. We’re going to do whatever we can to try to help expedite the project,” said Sutter.

The department can help prioritize this system through the Water Board’s Division of Financial Assistance.

The Scotia CSD Water Treatment Facility Replacement Project is an endeavor estimated at 3 million dollars, according to the SCSD website. Sutter said in cases like this, consolidation with other systems like nearby Rio Dell is another option.