Lingering issues relating to Waterloo’s new water plant continue to flow amongst the community, with updates trickling out seemingly by the day.

Regarding the recent suspension of two city employees, one has resigned to accept employment elsewhere.

Alex Bishop, a City of Waterloo employee in the underground utilities department, told the Republic-Times on Thursday he will be working in a similar capacity outside of the county.  

He had been placed on paid suspension “pending an investigation into activities during the month of December and leading up to Jan. 31 concerning water sampling,” per a notice issued by the city.  

Bishop said he “had been in the middle of job interviews before all of this started and that job was finalized.”

He and another suspended employee, Jason Goff, were critical in social media posts about an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency violation issued to the city for failing to turn in a water sample for the month of December.

Waterloo Director of Public Works JR Landeck has said at meetings this issue was rectified and all January tests were submitted successfully and passed.

The city’s new water treatment facility located in Valmeyer went online in late December, ending a contract with Illinois American Water that would have resulted in increased rates.

Waterloo’s contract with Illinois American officially ended Oct. 31, but Illinois American agreed to continue supplying water until the city had its new plant online.

The city in September hired Certop Inc. – a contract water operating company out of Clinton County – for operation, maintenance and management of the new $30 million plant.

This decision to go with Certop came about following union contract negotiations involving the city’s underground utilities employees.    

The current contract with Certop runs through April 30, 2025 – though that contract was extended through the end of the year by a unanimous city council vote Tuesday night.

Water quality, hardness, Certop and transparency were among the topics tackled during a public town hall gathering hosted Thursday night by Jason Jones Jr. at Pearl’s Player Palace.

Jones is seeking to unseat incumbent Ward 3 Alderman Kyle Buettner in the April 1 municipal election. Buettner currently serves as chairman of the city’s water and sewer committee. 

During Thursday’s gathering, which was livestreamed via the “Friends of Jason Jones” Facebook page, a few residents expressed displeasure in the high hardness levels of the water since the new plant went online. 

Hardness is generally described as the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium in water. 

This hardness, multiple residents said, has resulted in damage to appliances such as dishwashers. 

Mayor Stan Darter, who was present at Thursday’s gathering, explained that the water softening portion was built as scheduled at the new plant but an unforeseen issue arose when sediment in water coming into the wells clogged some of the injectors.

The new state-of-the-art treatment facility located in Valmeyer features a trio of wells off Bluff Road that drill into the Mississippi Aquifer, working one at a time throughout the day.

“In order to resolve that, we had to order new equipment that was actually designed, for this plant, in order to catch that sediment before it got to the water softening process,” Darter said of the clogging issue..

This equipment, known as a solids separator, was recently installed and is now being tested at the plant. 

Landeck provided an update on this matter Tuesday, saying installation of the solids separator has been approved by the IEPA permit manager.

“I’m pleased to share that our design team states it is performing as it should, however, during testing last week a small amount of material is still passing by,” Landeck said. “(Artesian  of Pioneer Water Systems), the water processing firm, stated, ‘Operators, engineers, and the contractor onsite during the testing were all surprised to see the amount of solids.’ This material is causing concern of clogging the distributors for the softening process.”

Out of caution, Landeck said the city is not yet softening the water.

“The sandy-like material appears to be coming from the raw water mains directly from the wells,” he explained “We are currently working with the well drilling company and our engineering team on solutions to this issue.”

Landeck clarified that this sandy-like material is filtered out by the filtration process at the water plant, therefore it does not make it to the finished water consumed by residents.

“At this time we do not have an estimated timeline, but will provide an update when more information become available,” he said.

With the city using about 1 million gallons of water daily – the plant has a processing capacity of 3.2 million gallons per day – the hardness would be lessened with this new piece of equipment within a matter of days.

Hardness levels in the 290-300 range have been reported recently for Waterloo, with the ideal range somewhere between 150-200, Landeck had stated in a recent water and sewer committee. The final hardness reading for Waterloo water when it was supplied by Illinois American was 223.

As for the possibility of restitution to residents who have reported damage to appliances as a result of recent hardness levels, Darter advised them during Thursday’s town hall to “talk to the city.”

This issue of hardness, combined with the IEPA sampling violation, also led to some residents questioning the safety of the water in general since the new plant went online.

Darter hoped to put those concerns to rest Thursday night.

“Our water is tested every single day at the water plant,” the mayor said. “There’s nothing wrong with the water except hardness. I drink it every day.”

Darter further explained  the city has never failed a water quality test with the IEPA.

At least one resident at the meeting expressed a desire for the city to make all of its tests – for both quality and hardness – available for the entire community to see. 

On Tuesday, the City of Waterloo placed links on the city website for water testing results. To access these results, go to waterloo.il.us/departments/water/ and then click on links provided in the “IEPA Links” and “Water Treatment Facility Daily Testing & Operating Logs” portions of that page.

Darter further offered that the city’s plant was facilitated and designed by Artesian of Pioneer Water Systems, with HMG Engineers overseeing construction and Korte & Luitjohan Contractors building the facility. 

Korte & Luitjohan is still working on a “punch list” of final tasks to complete before it officially turns the plant over to the city.

Another resident attending Thursday’s town hall meeting said they would like Waterloo to train or set a path forward for city employees to eventually run the water plant rather than outsourcing this work to a company such as Certop. 

A woman attending this meeting said she’d like added means of communication from the city on the water situation and other matters, rather than postings on Facebook or finding the information in the newspaper.

Jones said at his meeting that city officials, Darter in particular, have been “obfuscating” matters related to the water plant and would like to see more transparency in general.

Jones also told those in attendance to “keep pressing your city” on these and other issues important to them. 

In further response to calls for more transparency, the City of Waterloo announced that its city council and monthly utility meetings will be livestreamed via its Facebook page and also available on the city website starting with Tuesday’s council meeting.