By ROBERT A. DEFRANK

Times Leader Staff Writer

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency expects action from the city within two weeks.

Mayor Kathryn Thalman, took office in January, met with OEPA officials in Columbus last Wednesday and Thursday to discuss a long-term plan to comply with mandates for the water system. According to city officials, its treated water meets health, safety and environmental requirements, but the age of the facilities and decades of postponed maintenance have led to difficulties in maintaining those systems. They say the city must take extra steps to remove iron, manganese and harmful algal blooms from the water as it is pumped from the reservoir into the plant for treatment.

“We have to come up with a solution and direction to say which way we’re going with our water. It’s time. The fish or cut bait time is over,” Thalman said Friday. “We’ve got two weeks to come up with a proposed plan of what we are going to do with our water for the next 50 years. … This plant has had decades of neglect, and now it’s all coming to a head. The meeting we had with the EPA was very fruitful, but it was very firm. They were not a bit ambivalent. They want a solution, and they want to hear it in two weeks.”

Thalman said she is arranging a meeting with potential stakeholders this week to plan possible courses of action.

“We will be doing some brainstorming to say, ‘Here is the direction we are going,'” she said. “It’s going to be difficult. We’ve got a meeting that we’re going to have. We’ve got a couple of engineers going to be there. We’ve got some people from Martins Ferry, some people from Belmont County, and we’re going to see if either of those might be viable options, and then we’re going to pick a direction. … It is basically a brainstorming meeting. Bring your good ideas.”

She said some of the mandates may take as long as two years to meet.

“The EPA wants to see some very clearly defined things done with our water plant. For example, there are three valves — one on top, one in the middle and one at the bottom — that feed the water into the plant. If there’s a drought and the water drops, the top one you can’t use anymore because the water’s dropping. The middle one, we’re not sure if it works, and the bottom one we know doesn’t work, so they said, ‘You will fix this,'” she said.

“We’re probably going to have to send a diver or a machine down,” she said of examining the condition of the lower valves. “They even mentioned we may have to dredge the reservoir, and that would be unbelievably expensive.”

She would not speculate on a total cost to comply with this mandate until the status of the valves is known.

“Until we see what we’re facing, I can’t give you a … cost,” she said.

Thalman said the city has been active in addressing some of the more minor OEPA mandates such as lighting in the plant, painting and proper storage of chemicals, but costlier mandates such as installing dehumidifiers still must be addressed, as well as installing gauges to identify the extent of water loss.

“Since I’ve been in office, we have gotten a lot of things accomplished,” she said. “We kind of picked the low-hanging fruit. There are a couple of big things like the dredging of the reservoir to check that third valve.”

One goal of last week’s meetings with the OEPA was to ask for more time to explore options.

“We actually sat down and negotiated each particular item and came to an agreeable timeline for each item. That being said, a couple of things like the diver … that has got to be addressed,” she said.

She thanked local engineer Jeff Vaughn, who accompanied her to meet the state officials.

“(Vaughn) was very involved in the negotiations. … He asked for realistic timelines. On several items we came to an agreeable and amenable timeline,” she said.

Leading up to the mayoral election in November, a debate over water privatization was a driving issue. Past mayor Terry Pugh favored selling the water system to Aqua Ohio, a private, state-regulated entity. The company has extended its proposed contract offer to the city to April to allow the new administration time to reach a decision.

Vaughn has been contracted to evaluate St. Clairsville’s water system and report on its status and the cost of maintaining local control. Thalman said he shared his findings with the OEPA during the meeting.

“He had gone through every individual item and explained in detail why it might take this long for that particular item,” she said.

Thalman said she has met with Martins Ferry city leaders to discuss whether that community could possibly supply water to St. Clairsville. Another option is a possible existing water connection with Belmont County.

“It’s been coming for a long time, and I understand why it didn’t get tackled. It’s an immense job. I feel very confident this will get done and we will be able to provide our citizens with very cost-effective, very clean and very consistent water,” she said.

Thalman said a more substantive report will be delivered to City Council at its next meeting, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. March 2 at the municipal building.