Complaints about drinking water quality and a directive from the state Department of Health has led the city of Ocean Shores to consider fleshing out its cross connection control program.

Some residents maintain concerns about “black slime” in their water, which likely is a product of mold buildup within residences, water officials say.

City water staff and DOH assessments have not found a causal relationship between those two water quality issues. Officials say the black slime issue is “aesthetic” and that Ocean Shores public water is safe to drink.

On Monday, the city held a city council study session on the issue of water quality, and invited Regina Grimm, a regional engineer for DOH in Grays Harbor and Mason counties, to answer questions from the public and council.

Ocean Shores City Administrator Scott Andersen said at the end of the meeting that increasing flushing, finding “hotspots” for water quality issues and hiring a specialist for the cross connection control program were all steps the city could take moving forward.

A staple in public water systems for decades, cross connection control programs are set up to reduce risk of an outside connection contaminating water supply, which come most commonly in the form of fire sprinkler or irrigation lines.

According to Grimm, the DOH received water quality complaints from residents last spring. After meeting with the city, Grimm found the city’s cross connection control program had not been keeping up with annual testing requirements for backflow prevention devices, which act as a safeguard against instances where water system flow might reverse during a system pressure change and potentially cause contamination.

A new cross connection control survey, which is included in the city’s water bill, will determine which properties in Ocean Shores pose a potential hazard and need to have a backflow prevention installed. Grimm gave the city an Oct. 1 deadline to conduct the survey.

“I asked the city to first make sure they know where those are at, which is why they are doing the customer survey, and then have customers install a backflow device,” Grimm said.

Any building three stories or at least 430 feet in height is required to have a device. The city already has 82 backflow devices on record, Victoriano said, adding, “I don’t think there will really be a ton more that need to be installed.”

Victoriano said at the Monday meeting that current city ordinances state customers are responsible for the costs of backflow devices.

Existing devices must be tested by the end of the year, Grimm said. If those deadlines aren’t met, it would warrant a compliance document. Grimm said the DOH doesn’t normally track testing of backflow prevention devices, but decided to issue deadlines when the complaints brought the topic to her attention.

Further regulation of the cross connection control program will be up to city ordinances, Grimm said.

“The cross connection control program is never something that’s done,” Victoriano said. “It’s a constantly evolving, changing program.”

Both Victoriano and Matt Tobart, crew chief for the city’s water department, are certified to run the cross connection control program, but neither are solely devoted to it. Given the new ramifications of the program, Andersen asked Grimm if cities the size of Ocean Shores typically employ full-time cross connection managers.

“I think it’s a very big workload, and especially since it will take a while to get up to speed, I think it would take someone full time,” Grimm said, adding that software is available that’s specifically designed to help manage cross connection systems.

Black slime

Along with concerns about cross connections, several residents in Ocean Shores have reported a “black slime” coming from their taps.

“This actually has a slime to it, to where it’s like a gelatin almost,” said Jane Shattuck, a resident who first reported the issue to the city and the Department of Health in March.

Since then, three people have complained to the DOH about the issue, and four have made complaints to the city’s water department. According to Shattuck, more than 100 have contacted her about the issue specifically. Several people mentioned that black slime was an issue at their own homes during Monday’s meeting.

After the initial complaints, the DOH began to provide technical assistance to the city. Grimm said in an interview that the source of the black slime appeared to be “mold or manganese or bacteria, something that the city is not even required to test for.”

“It’s more of a nuisance, or what we consider to be an aesthetic problem, and not something that would make someone sick or anything,” Grimm said.

In May, the city conducted tests through a third-party laboratory at three private residences where black slime was reported: at the north end of Canal Drive, south end of Duck Lake, and north end of Mt. Olympus Avenue. According to Victoriano, the results showed that mold bacteria was present in each of the houses. He said it was likely the “mold bacteria growth manifests as a black slime deposit.”

The city also conducted a test of the distribution line “at the closest installed sample point” to the homes, which did not produce mold.

“We have been able to confirm that the mold bacteria is not present in our distribution and is instead, prevalent after the point of service in a customer’s home when a humid, and warm environment is able to foster this bacteriological growth,” Victoriano wrote in a memo.

Victoriano said even though it’s likely the mold was leading to the black slime issue, it has not been completely determined why, exactly, the mold growth was occurring. The issue was solved in one residence, he said, by removing a chlorine filter, which could be the issue elsewhere.

Shattuck said the black slime issue decreased in her home when the city flushed the system several months ago, but has since returned. She said even though the state does not require the city to test for mold bacteria in water, she was still concerned about potential health risks and hoped the city will conduct more research into what’s causing the black slime.

The city released on Monday a 53-page packet containing water quality information, which is available on the city’s website at https://oceanshores.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/89968. The city has nine groundwater wells, five of which are in operation, and maintains about 100 miles of pipe. A $7 million water treatment plant installed in 2011 “dramatically improved” water quality for the city, according to Ocean Shores Mayor Jon Martin.

Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.