City Council meets tonight to discuss water tests

The Baker City Council has scheduled a special meeting tonight (Tuesday) at 7 o’clock to discuss city water sample tests from 2010 and 2011 that detected trace amounts of cryptosporidium, although at levels too low to pose a health risk.

The meeting will be at City Hall, 1655 First St.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decided several years ago to require public drinking water systems to deal with cryptosporidium, a microscopic parasite that can cause vomiting and diarrhea.

Baker City started testing its water for cryptosporidium in April 2010.

During the next year, the city submitted 24 water samples to a testing lab.

Until about mid-September, the test results the city had received showed no presence of cryptosporidium “oocysts” in any samples.

But according to a staff report that City Manager Mike Kee wrote for city councilors for tonight’s meeting, in September the city received final test results from Lab/Cor Inc. in Seattle that detected small concentrations of crypto in water samples taken in April 2010, October 2010 and January 2011.

Bill Goss, who works for the Oregon Department of Human Services’ Drinking Water Program office in Pendleton, said this morning that those concentrations, in each sample, was too low to cause illness in people.

According to Oregon statistics, there has never been a confirmed case of crypto-related illness traced to Baker City’s drinking water. The state has confirmed about 1,000 human cases in the past 15 years.

Kee said this morning that he assumed that if any water samples contained crypto, that the city would be alerted.

He said he’s not sure what that apparently didn’t happen until September, almost a year and a half after the first water sample containing crypto was tested.

Since the testing started in April 2010, city officials have reported that none of the water samples tested positive for crypto.

The overall purpose of tonight’s meeting’s, Kee wrote in the staff report, is to “put all of the water quality people in the same room in order for the council to have their questions answered and get good accurate information to the people of Baker City concerning the positive tests.”

Goss emphasized that based on the concentration of crypto in the three samples, the city does not have to take any action to further protect its water, or to recommend residents take any precautions.

Baker City is required to install equipment, by Oct. 1, 2016, that renders crypto oocysts “inactive,” Goss said.

The city’s preferred method is to bombard water with ultraviolet light. The estimated cost of the system is $2.5 million.

Also on the agenda for tonight’s meeting:

• Councilors could potentially approve the liquor sales license for the Maverik fuel station and mini market in the 1500 block of Campbell St. The business is scheduled to open Wednesday and management plans to sell wine, beer and cider for off-premises consumption.

• Councilors will consider their meeting schedule for the rest of the year — whether to hold all regular sessions in November and December.