In May 2025, an operational incident resulted in Georgia Environmental Protection Division issuing a Notice of Violation for the Savannah Industrial and Domestic Water Treatment Plant.
In compliance with requirements by Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) procedures for the Treatment Technique violation, Savannah Water Resources notified the public with letters sent in utility bills in June 2025 and posted the information on the City's website.
What happened?
On May 12, 2025, we increased our coagulant (alum) feed rate at the I&D WTP to approximately double the normal dosage amount to maintain treatment effectiveness in response to recent heavy rainfall (May 10-12) and changing raw water quality conditions. Our filtered water turbidity levels at the plant are typically below 0.30 NTU. However, water samples collected overnight May 15-16 within the plant showed turbidity levels around 2.0 NTU which is when the violation occurred. The City routinely monitors treated water for turbidity (cloudiness) which tells us whether we are effectively filtering the water supply. These elevated levels occurred when a portion of raw water with a reduced coagulant dose entered the treatment process between 9:00 pm and 10:00 pm, resulting in elevated filtered water turbidity levels within the treatment process. Plant operators identified the coagulant feed issue by 10:15 p.m. on May 15th and took corrective action such that the process began recovering by 1:00 am and returned to normal operating conditions by 4:30 am on May 16th. The City notified EPD staff via phone call on May 16 as to what occurred overnight May 15-16
What should customers do?
There is nothing that customers need to do because of the May 15-16, 2025 incident. The City staff tested 71 water samples on May 16 and 17 and the data showed no evidence of contamination or disease-causing organisms in the drinking water distribution system. In short, the water met all applicable drinking water standards.
What does this mean?
The purpose of this notification is to advise customers as to the details of the incident, but we want to reiterate that our water testing on May 16-17 confirmed the water was safe to drink post-incident. If a health problem with drinking water safety had occurred related to this incident on May15-16, the City would have notified customers within 24 hours and issued a boil-water advisory. EPD provided the following information to the City for inclusion in this document:
Turbidity has no health effects. However, turbidity can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth. Turbidity may indicate the presence of disease causing organisms. These organisms include bacteria, viruses, and parasites which can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches
While these symptoms are not caused only by organisms in drinking water, a customer experiencing any of these symptoms should seek medical advice. If you have a severely compromised immune system, have an infant, are pregnant, or are elderly, you may be at increased risk and should seek advice from your healthcare providers about drinking this water. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available on the EPA Ground Water and Drinking Water Website at https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water
What is being done by the City of Savannah?
The drinking water system returned to normal operations within a few hours of the incident and after corrective actions were taken. To help prevent future occurrences, operator retraining has occurred, and a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been developed for coagulant dosing under variable raw water quality conditions.
For more information, please contact our City of Savannah Water Department at (912) 651-6573.