Council updates residents on water system chlorination incident and SCADA alarms

Wallsburg Town Council discussed a water‑system incident that temporarily affected water taste and odor after contractor mapping and valve operations caused chlorinated, stagnant water to be pushed back into the distribution system.

Public works lead Troy Thompson described how contractor mapping errors and cuts to pipe lines during the water‑system project allowed chlorinated standing water to mix and enter customer lines. Staff responded by opening hydrants and dosing the tanks; the council was told crews flushed and chlorinated the upper tank and were dosing the system nightly at roughly one gallon per 25,000 gallons (about 1 part per million) to maintain residual disinfectant while cutovers continued.

Thompson said the town has been working to keep water moving during the cutover of a small number of meters and that residents might taste or smell chlorine for a short period while crews finish the work. “We got the water moving and got chlorine into the system,” he said during the meeting.

Council members also reported operational problems with the supervisory control and data acquisition system, or SCADA, which has produced false alarms and will require vendor service. Troy said he had scheduled a technician to fix the SCADA sensors and noted the town may be billed for technical service. Separately, attendees reported battery backup for some control equipment was not functioning during a prior power outage; staff said they would investigate replacement options.

No water‑use restrictions were imposed at the Sept. 5 meeting. Council members asked staff to continue daily chlorination monitoring, to pursue the SCADA repairs promptly and to report back on whether a replacement battery backup or additional hardware is needed.