LEROY, Texas — People who live in the Leroy area have had arsenic in the water in excess of Environmental Protection Agency standards for 13 years and the EPA will be fining the Leroy-Tours-Gerald Water Supply Corporation if they don't get the issue fixed by the fall of 2020. Water board president Don Ramsey said the fine would be around $50,000 a day.
Ramsey said the EPA gave them several years before threatening the fine.
"They have been very lenient with us because they know we are in a very difficult situation. We are also barely over the maximum contaminate levels. We have only been over occasionally, so they have been a little bit more lenient because of that," Ramsey said.
The solutions, and the costs they would put on customers, are still being debated.
The Water Board in May voted to bring in water from the city of Waco. The estimate price customers would pay changed from meeting to meeting, leaving the community concerned.
Ramsey said engineers and board members estimated a $50 price increase to water bills in one meeting, $84 in another, and then $30 in another. Community members signed a petition calling for an alternate solution for more than a month.
The community wants the board to install water filtration systems to remove the arsenic. Ramsay said a previous board put together a filter study in 2018. He said the filters worked, but the study was completed incorrectly and the state would not accept it.
Ramsey said he is still in favor of filtration. The solution that would cost an estimated $30 to $50.
"To me, the filter option is still the best way to go. First because we can satisfy our EPA requirements much quicker, have much better water soon, and then move on with trying to find more sources," Ramsey said.
Why are the costs all over the place? It's a question neither customers, nor Ramsey knows the answer to.
6 News contacted Waco Water Department spokesman Jonathan Echols Monday to find out if the water board had officially selected a water rate that numbers could be based on.
"Leroy, Tours, Gerald has been given the relevant information and the way that wholesale water contracts and rates function has been explained to them," Echols wrote in an email. "There have been discussions with them, but we don’t have anything official in writing."
Carol Baker, who lives in the area, said the community will try to remove and replace board members in order to pursue the water filter option, which they believe to be the better and cheaper option.
Ramsey told 6 News his job as president is to carry out the decisions of the board.
"It is very frustrating. Our public is very concerned. They are very active, very interested in this. We want to do what's right for the community," Ramsey said.
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