Bluff council reviews brief water system outage, SCADA fixes and urges residents to contact Bluff Water Works

Council members reviewed a recent short disruption of Bluff's water delivery system during the Aug. 5 meeting and heard staff and operators describe the incident as a computerized SCADA alarm failure rather than a distribution leak.

Jennifer (staff) said the town received a small number of calls and that dispatch and operators responded quickly. "The SCADA people were down yesterday and have put 3 new 2 or 3 new alarms on the tanks and also replaced some kind of valve type of thing," staff reported. Operators said the response limited pressure loss and no system shutdown was required.

Council and staff urged residents to address technical questions to Bluff Water Works operators, who meet on the second Wednesday of every month; staff noted that Bluff Water Works is the primary technical operator and that council members should attend as representatives rather than relying on the town office for technical incident briefings. Council asked for at least one or two members to attend the next Bluff Water Works meeting to maintain a direct line of communication with operators.

Staff said the outage provided a useful test of the emergency notification tree and that staff plans to continue refinement of alarming and remote monitoring. The council requested that Bluff Water Works or town staff send a short public notice clarifying the cause (computer/SCADA issue) and reassuring residents that water quality and supply were not compromised during the incident.

Bluff Water Works staff will present a fuller incident and mitigation update at their next regular meeting; council members who can attend should notify the town manager to ensure representation.