St. James Utility Board members heard updates Oct. 14 from public works officials regarding ongoing water quality and water service infrastructure issues.

St. James Public Works officials are actively testing the city’s water quality and also planning repairs to a city well, the pump for which malfunctioned on Oct. 11.

Last month, St. James residents reported receiving discolored and odorous water at residences and businesses across town. In response, the city asked residents to report outages through Hometown Grid, a service that maps and collects data about municipal utility outages.

Meanwhile, public works officials began testing the city’s water and flushing water lines in the most affected areas while they attempted to figure out the scope of the issues with the city’s water quality and locate sources of potential contamination.

Greg Strickling, a technician with Peopleservice, the company that St. James contracts to operate the city’s water and wastewater systems, said that they have received the results of city water tests done by the Missouri State Public Health Authority. According to Strickling, a bacteriological test of the city’s water found no harmful bacteria, including coliform and E. coli.

“We got the results back this morning,” Strickling said at the Oct. 14 meeting. “All through the water issues we’ve had good bacteriological testing.”

Tests for iron, manganese and the Langelier saturation index, which measures water’s tendency to be corrosive or form scale, all fell under the maximum contaminant levels mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to Strickling.

Peopleservice also submitted water samples to undergo heterotrophic plate count tests, which test water for levels of iron and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria. Results were expected by Oct. 16.

Iron and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria are naturally occurring in water and soil and are generally harmless to human health.

In an article written for the University of Missouri Extension, Extension Water Quality State Specialist Bob Broz said that “this naturally occurring bacteria does not cause disease, but does form a reddish-brown slime that coats the inside of pipes, fouls pumps and clogs waterers.”

Strickling said that this type of bacteria was a likely suspect for reportedly foul smelling water in St. James.

“That’s probably why people are complaining on their hot water side when they’re getting that rotten egg smell,” Strickling said. “They’re anaerobic bacteria and they feed on minerals, so when minerals build up in a warm place like a hot water heater, it gets in there and it’s probably where we’re getting a lot of these calls about stinky water.”

Peopleservice plans to conduct a full flush of the city’s water system, but is waiting until water testing is complete.

“(Testing) will just give us one more data point to see what’s going on in the system. We’re gonna find out how bad it is in the system. We’re planning to do a full flush anyway,” Strickling said.

Public Works Director Lyle Thomas also provided the Municipal Utilities Board with an update on a city water well that became inoperable on Sunday night, Oct. 11.

St. James operates three wells. The inoperable well is Well 2, which is located by the St. James High School football field. Thomas said it was the motor that failed.

“We did our electrical checks and basically the motor was shot, locked up, wasn’t moving, wasn’t pumping water,” Thomas said, adding that the motor has been removed and employees are still trying to determine what caused it to fail.

Crews examined the more-than 900-foot deep well using cameras. The well’s casing, which is nearly 400 feet deep, was installed in 1969 and is experiencing some mineral buildup and corrosion, according to Thomas.

Thomas said the well “is still in good enough shape to give us several more years of service,” but that the Utility Board will have to consider digging a new well in the near future. “It’s not a cheap undertaking,” said Thomas, who confirmed that a rough estimate for digging a new well stands at around $1 million.

While Well 2 is inoperable, Well 1, which is located near St. James City Hall is the only active well supplying groundwater to the south side of town.

Thomas told the board that due to the BNSF railroad tracks acting as a chokepoint in the city’s water system, “it would be in our best interest to maintain two wells on the southside if possible.”

The city has ordered a new pump and casing for the well, and could have it operating again within two weeks.

St. James Mayor Rick Krawiecki said that the city is working expediently to fix the well, and that it will continue to monitor water quality throughout the repair process.

“It could be a couple of more weeks, but we are doing everything as quickly as we can to solve this problem,” Krawiecki said. “We continue to have the water tested, and everything comes back negative for any kind of harmful bacteria. We will continue to do that even after we get the well fixed.”