Water Systems Miss Tests

Three public drinking water systems failed to meet a state requirement for monthly bacteria testing, according to the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality.

Agency officials said Ponderosa Terrace Estates in Bonner County and Riverbend Water Company and Twinlow Resident Deep Well in Kootenai County didn’t monitor their water for coliform bacteria. The water providers also failed to notify customers that the testing wasn’t done, officials said.

Ponderosa serves 30 people in the Talache area; Riverbend serves up to 1,000 people, including the Post Falls Factory Outlet Center; and Twinlow serves about 250 people in the Twin Lakes area.

The notice doesn’t mean the water is contaminated, only that testing and notification wasn’t done, said Steve Tanner, DEQ’s drinking water programs supervisor.

The agency hasn’t found any contamination problems or health risks, Tanner said.

The manager for one of the three systems on the list bristled at the state’s methods.

Pat Leffel, Riverbend’s project manager, characterized the problem as a breakdown in communication with the state. Leffel expressed concern that water users may get unnecessarily alarmed.

“We get real sensitive, especially when you’re talking about water,” he said. “We’ve been doing it since ‘93 and never had a (coliform) detection.”

Leffel apparently forgot to monitor last December, said Tony Davis, a water quality officer with DEQ. Since then, Riverbend has filed monitoring results through every month, including April.

Davis credited Leffel as a conscientious operator. “Riverbend is a very good water system, but they are required to monitor just like all of the 200 other community systems in the Panhandle,” Davis said.