Hurricane Irma and City water

By Susan Hardee Steger
Information provided by John Mandrick
Utilities Director
City of Fernandina Beach
September 9, 2017 9:04 a.m.

Yesterday, I had a flash back! As my family nestled in our house during Hurricane Dora’s 1964 visit to Amelia Island, I recalled the bucket brigade! At that time, city water was apparently turned off during the hurricane. To flush toilets, my sisters and I would collect rainwater from the downspouts to do the job. I recall one water collection trip when it took seconds to fill up the bucket. The downspout was like Niagara Falls!

After reading questions and erroneous comments on social media concerning water availability, I went directly to John Mandrick, utilities director for the City of Fernandina Beach.

John, would the city turn off the water during Hurricane Irma?

“Never. [We] would only valve off areas if a water main is ripped from the ground due to a falling tree. Our system has enough diesel fuel to run for 12 days without Utility power. Our water tower is built to handle Cat 5 winds.”

During the storm, do we need to be concerned that water coming into our homes could be contaminated?

“If we lose pressure due to broken lines then we will valve off areas and put out notice to boil water in that area. Our lines have 55 to 65 pounds per square in them at all times meaning that there is no way for anything to enter them unless they lose pressure from a break which will be obvious with water pouring out.

Just to elaborate a little bit more concerning the water system. The State of Florida Environmental Protection agency mandates that a minimum of 20 PSI be maintained on the water system at all times to prevent any contamination. In addition we are mandated to maintain a minimum of 0.2 ppm of free chlorine in our system at all times to prevent anything from contaminating the water. Every day we take readings at our remote taps to ensure we have proper Chlorine residual (even during Hurricanes). We also take 18 system samples every month and send them to the lab for analysis. If after 24 hours of examination there is an indicate of Bacteria in the water we notify the state take additional samples and notify the public if needed. Our water system meets all regulatory standards at all times.

I hope this information provides you with confidence that our water is safe to drink. In addition, we have three separate facilities with back up generators at each of them. It only takes one to maintain the system. We have three for additional reliability and future growth needs.”

For all of our readers who are staying during the storm, it looks , there will be no bucket brigades for Irma and the water is safe to drink! Thank you John!