Vero Beach water-treatment plant might get upgrades to prevent outages

VERO BEACH — Human error contributed to last week's three-day boil-water advisory, but city officials said Tuesday other steps are needed to prevent future incidents.

All city customers were placed on a precautionary boil-water advisory last week after the water treatment plant briefly lost power and water pressure.

The initial problem began during maintenance of a battery backup system at the water treatment plant, Water and Sewer Department Director Robert Bolton told the Vero Beach City Council on Tuesday. Mayor Laura Moss asked Bolton to explain the causes of last week's boil-water advisory and what changes were made to avoid future incidents.

The system batteries are routinely changed every 18 months, Bolton said. A dropped wire caused the system to shut down and the plant to lose power long enough for the water pressure to drop below acceptable levels, he said.

The advisory was canceled after two consecutive days of water samples showed no contamination in the city's water. While caused by human error, the situation showed some upgrades to the plant are needed, Bolton said. Officials called the switch manufacturer, who has recommended some changes, he said.

"The same person changed the batteries 12 other times (before) with no problems," Bolton said.

A citywide boil-water advisory was last issued in February 2016 after a malfunctioning city electric resistor caused a three-hour power outage. All 12,490 city water customers — including schools, medical services and other businesses — were placed on a boil-water advisory. Restaurants closed, and schools distributed bottled water to students. No contamination was found through water testings at that time.

While council members agreed public notification was better this time around, they hoped to avoid making boil-water advisories an annual event.

"It's very inconvenient to the customers and very costly to businesses," Moss said.

Bolton said staff is working on making adjustments, including improving how customers are notified of advisories.

"We don't feel like it'll occur again," he said.