COLUMBIA, S.C. — Columbia water is looking to make improvements.
Those include repairing busted pipes and taking suggestions from a chemical study and it comes with a large price tag and Columbia City Council discussed it Tuesday night.
On Monday, the city council discussed three main Columbia Water maintenance projects.
Clint Shealy is the assistant city manager for Columbia Water, he said the first project is to allocate $52,000 to hire external contractors.
This is in response to the deep freeze that caused several water main breaks during the winter.
“Our process for the last three years has been to utilize private contractors to assist, kind of a staff augmentation to help us provide more timely service for our leak repairs," Shealy said.
Residents are concerned about where all of this money will come from, Ed Wilson is one of them.
“Just looking at the water rates from over the last year, I’ve noticed there’s already been an increase. If there’s gonna be any additional increase to the water at least it needs to be something that’s going to be conducive for the repairs that’s being done," Wilson said.
According to Shealy, the city plans ahead for these types of solutions.
“So we actually budget every year, to utilize contractors," he said.
Another project the agency is requesting funds from the city of Columbia for is to conduct a sewer evaluation study and rehabilitation project.
“Every year we hire a contractor or contractors to assist us with a waste water systems, that infrastructure is older and is need of lining or replacing , rehabilitations, services that sort of thing," Shealy said.
This will cost more than $200,000.
While the City said it’s working to improve its sewers and pipes, its also working on the quality of the water following DHEC's study on chemicals in the water supply
“We could as early as two weeks from now, see that proposed regulation come out where we and our other utilities fall in terms of projected compliance,” Clint Shealy said.
Shealy added if the EPA releases its requirements on the water we could see changes in the next two years.