FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – This week, residents of Fernandina Beach received a letter in the mail about water quality samples taken between April and June.
The letter says the Utilities department took the tests for levels of disinfection byproducts, Total Trihalomethanes and Haloacetic Acids, but submitted the samples after the test deadline.
As a result, the department could not be certain of the water quality between those dates.
However, the department explains in the letter that sampling resumed on June 10, and those water quality results were acceptable.
Fernandina Beach Utilities Director Andre Desilet told News4JAX the water is safe to drink.
The letter was shared on Facebook by one Fernandina Beach resident, Waldemar Borrero, and stirred online chatter, with many feeling confused about their water quality and whether it is, in fact, OK to drink. Many specifically questioned why they received the notice this week, months after the samples were missed.
“Why are we getting this notice now?” questioned one resident.
“Why did they miss a test at the start of the warm season?” said another resident.
“What’s really going on? Where are the results?” said another commenter.
It’s important to note that the letter does not say the water exceeded the limits for disinfection byproducts. It only says that they didn’t test during the required timeframe, so they can’t prove what the levels were during that missed period.
News4JAX interviewed Desilet about the letter.
We asked him how this situation started.
“Essentially, we have reminders set up for different test deadlines,” said Desilet. “Turned out we had a staff member who was out of the office for an extended period of time, and we didn’t realize that was the only person who was receiving these reminders.”
He also explained they have now taken proper measures to ensure this situation will never happen again.
We also asked Desilet why it took so long to send out this notice.
“It’s part of the regulatory process,” he said. “DEP is our governing body; they don’t move very quickly. It was months before we got a letter informing us of what we needed to do.”
Unfortunately, the utilities director tells News4JAX we will not know the test results because the sample was taken five days after that time period; however, since there were no problems with the samples taken before or after the missed sample, he believes there wouldn’t have been a problem.