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City hears water-safety briefing as residents report raw sewage, council schedules follow-up
Summary
At its July 7 meeting the Alexandria City Council heard multiple public comments about raw sewage and potential E.coli in residential lines; an IDM inspector reviewed public drinking-water records and testing procedures and the council set a July 21 working session for additional sampling and public discussion.
Alexandria officials and residents clashed over reports of raw sewage and possible E.coli contamination at a July 7 City Council meeting as a state inspector briefed the council on how drinking-water monitoring and testing work.
Resident Leon Deere told the council he has raw sewage discharging behind 708 North Lincoln Avenue and said private plumbers and a vendor confirmed a collapsed city line. "I'm calling on the city to help fix this problem," Deere said, urging an immediate, permanent repair because the discharge sits near his three-year-old son's play structure.
Dave Schmidt of the city's water/wastewater staff visited the site, according to Deere, and the council said it would follow up. The council also scheduled a working session for July 21, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. expressly to open the drinking-water discussion to public comment and to review additional sampling the water department will undertake.
The meeting's main presentation came from Clint Woods, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management field inspector assigned to Madison County, who walked the council and residents through the Indiana Drinking Water Viewer — the public database that posts monitoring schedules and sample results for each public water system. "Everything on the drinking water viewer is the public record for every single water system that's here in the state of Indiana," Woods told the council and residents.
Woods explained how sampling schedules work (monthly, quarterly, biennial and multi-year tests), described third-party lab reporting (the transcript references HML), and outlined response steps when a routine sample is flagged: the state receives lab results first, not the municipality, and IDM follows up with the town and the system operator. He emphasized correct sample collection and handling, warned that many at-home test kits are not EPA-approved, and offered to assist residents with certified sampling procedures.
Woods also clarified responsibility for private plumbing versus the municipal system: "The city is responsible from the service main to the meter through the meter to the customer side. That's where our responsibility stops," he said. That distinction guided several exchanges: Woods and council members said the department will assess whether positive results reflect distribution-system issues or household plumbing problems.
The inspector said new monitoring requirements are coming for certain contaminants (the transcript references initial PFA/PFAS sampling and a plan to incorporate such testing into routine monitoring schedules through 2027), and he urged residents to file complaints with the municipality as the first step, and with IDM if they do not get a response.
Council members and staff directed the water department and IDM to coordinate follow-up visits and testing. Woods said he would remain available after the meeting to meet residents and help collect certified samples.
The council's next regular meeting is scheduled for Aug. 4, 2025; the July 21 working session will focus on additional sampling and public Q&A prompted by the IDM briefing.
