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Water system emergency preparedness workshop held

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Nearly 30 state and local representatives of agencies and departments discussed emergency response plans for Farmington’s drinking water system.
Deputy Chief Clyde Ross of the Farmington Fire Department, explains his role as the public information officer at emergency incidents during the workshop.

FARMINGTON – If disaster struck and the town’s drinking water should become in peril, what would the local and state response be to such an emergency?

In a workshop held Thursday, nearly 30 representatives that included the Farmington Village Corporation Water Department, Farmington fire and police departments, UMF, county and state emergency management and dispatch personnel, the state environmental protection agency and Maine Rural Water Association discussed the existing water system, its protections, what the state and local responses to an emergency would be and examples of water contamination incidents that have occurred.

The emergency response workshop, sponsored by the Maine Drinking Water Program, was a lead up to a tabletop exercise to be held next month. That session will test the state and local emergency responses to an undisclosed hypothetical water utility emergency.

Tom Bahum, a training specialist with the Maine Rural Water Association said the goal of the exercise is “effective preparedness for managing utility emergencies.”

The Farmington Water Department, managed and operated by the Farmington Village Corporation, serves 4,000 people in Farmington and Temple, and maintains 283 hydrants and 93 miles of pipeline, said water Superintendent Tom Holt.

“We work closely with the fire department and the sewer department,” he said. Two systems of wells supply the town with a half million gallons of water a day. Reservoirs can supply six days worth of water. Varnum Pond in Temple serves as the system’s back-up water source. During power outages, generators run the town well pumps, located on the intervale northwest of downtown.

The top users of the system are Franklin Memorial Hospital and the UMF campus. Susan Breau, of the Sourcewater Protection Program at Maine Rural Water, said Farmington town users are “fortunate because there’s a lot of good water here.” Farmington was one of the first to enact a wellhead protection ordinance. The protected area is a 1,000-foot radius around the well sites.

Chemical spills do occur and when they do they can impact thousands of people. Three years ago in Elk River, W.V., 300,000 people were affected when a coal cleaning chemical leaked from a tank, ran into the river and infiltrated the town’s drinking water system source. At the time, town officials were slow to respond, said Dave McCaskill of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. He cited other spills in the U.S., including an ongoing water contamination problem in Corpus Christi, Texas.

“The lessons are these things can happen. We have to plan for what might happen,” McCaskill said.

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