Water Quality in Troutdale

My last post gave a summary of what the city is doing to provide excellent customer service to its residents and businesses. Earlier this year, the city mailed a survey to Troutdale businesses, asking them to respond to questions on how well the city is providing services. You can read the survey results here:

Troutdale Business Survey Results

There were many complaints about Troutdale's water quality in the survey results. The most frequent complaint had to do with taste and odor from customers in the northern part of the city.

To respond to these complaints, the city hired CH2m Hill, a nationally recognized engineering firm that has expertise in water treatment issues. Their analysis of the water, and of the comments from the business survey results, indicated the problems of taste and odor were probably caused by hydrogen sulfide, which is a naturally occurring substance often found in ground water.

City staff decided to mitigate the taste and odor problems caused by the hydrogen sulfide by increasing the amount of chlorine added to the water at the well handling the northern area of the city. The chlorine adjustment is scheduled to begin the week of September 5.

Troutdale Public Works Superintendent Kevin Rauch said that although the chlorine level will remain well below the federally mandated maximum of 4 parts per million, the additional chlorine might be noticeable to some water customers. The city has mailed a notice advising of the changes in the water to about 400 customers served by the affected well.

If you are one of those customers, let the city know if you detect any change in the water quality- better or worse. You can reach Kevin Rauch at 503-665-5175 ext. 250, or e-mail krauch@ci.troutdale.or.us. Or you can e-mail me at robert@robertcanfield.com.