If You Haven’t Been Following the Brockovich Water Controversy, This Will Catch You Up

Is our water safe? That’s the question concerned residents are still asking three weeks after activist Erin Brockovich called B.S. (literally using the hashtag #StopTheBullshit) on Plano and the regional water district’s claims that the water was fine, despite its pungent chlorine smell. Now those residents are especially fired up after Brockovich revealed Thursday night at a citizen town hall that the North Texas Municipal Water District was issued a violation by the state of Texas for failing to perform some tests for volatile organic compounds last year. [UPDATE 10:35 p.m. Friday] Though it initially released a statement acknowledging the violation, the water district rescinded its update on late Friday night, explaining the violation was a miscommunication because the plant in question was closed. 

A sold-out crowd of nearly 600 Collin County residents — just a fraction of the nearly 13,000 who’ve joined a Facebook group called Safer Water North Texas— packed into the Frisco Celebration Hall to hear Brockovich and water quality expert Bob Bowcock speak. Safer Water North Texas organized this event in a matter of days, after assembling themselves to speak up about water quality at local city council meetings and demand answers why their water doesn’t seem right. Brockovich and Bowcock flew to North Texas on their own dime after thousands of residents contacted the famed water safety advocate for help guiding their own activist efforts, much like the famed water quality advocate did in the eponymous 2000 movie by Steven Soderbergh.

If you haven’t been following the whole Erin Brockovich water quality thing, here’s the TL;DR version with some easy FAQs to follow along.

OK, catch me up. What’s up with the water?

The North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD), which provides tap water to 1.7 million residents, insists its water is safe because it meets or exceeds state and federal standards. So do several of the cities it services. But a growing number of residents from Plano, Frisco, Allen, McKinney, Wylie, Richardson and dozens more cities are unconvinced their water is safe to drink. Some residents say since the water district performed a 30-day “chlorine maintenance” last month, they’re experiencing unusual rashes, sudden flare-ups of dormant eczema, hair loss, and nose bleeds from bathing in what they’ve been told is safe water.

What is chlorine maintenance?

It is what the water district calls a “proactive system maintenance” or disinfectant process accepted by state and federal agencies as effective. However, Brockovich colloquially called it a chlorine burn and said it’s not routine maintenance, but rather a remedial corrective action to clean the water.

How did Erin Brockovich come into all this?

Concerned North Texas residents had been reaching out to Brockovich for several years, asking if she’d look into their water supply that officials said was safe, but their senses told them otherwise. “I’m here because your community reached out to me,” Brockovich said at Thursday’s town hall. “Communities get to a point where they’re so frustrated that their own agencies are not listening to them.” The quality of the district’s water came to wider attention after the environmental activist posted about it on her Facebook page. In her first post on March 13, she accused the city of Plano and the NTMWD of cutting corners on proper water treatment.

What did Erin Brockovich say?

“North Texas Municipal Water District is cutting corners on quality,” she wrote. “If a community water system is forced to conduct a chlorine burn, [it’s] because they are experiencing nitrification … it is because they have FAILED … it is not a ‘maintenance procedure’ … it is a remedial action to correct a serious problem they themselves have created because they are cheating on the regulations.”

What did the water district say?

“During this period, residents may experience a stronger smell of chlorine, however NTMWD has not increased the amount of chlorine in the water,” the water district said in a press release dated March 15. “The only change during this temporary maintenance period has been the discontinuation of ammonia while maintaining all other treatment processes. The odor will be more noticeable due to the lack of ammonia.” The North Texas Municipal Water District issued press releases before, during and after the chlorine maintenance and even put up a curious website to answer citizen’s common questions and complaints.

OK, what’s that in plain English?

They’re saying during the 30-day maintenance period, the water may smell like chlorine because they removed ammonia in their disinfectant. But the water district maintains it hasn’t altered the quality of the drinking water and it remains safe to use and drink.

Now that you mention it, I thought I smelled chlorine a few weeks back. But that means it’s just really clean, right?

Bob Bowcock, the water expert, said North Texas has some of the most aggressive disinfectant tactics he knows of. “You’re using the most chlorine I’ve ever seen anywhere, so you’re killing everything,” he told residents at Thursday night’s Safer Water North Texas event. So, the good news is that nasty bacteria like E. coli, Legionella bacteria, and Naegleria fowleri are less likely to survive in such a disinfected water supply, Bowcock explained.

No E. coli is good news. What’s the bad news?

Chemical disinfection is a must to maintain clean, illness-causing-bacteria-free water, but chemicals like chlorine are known skin irritants. There’s so much chlorine and other disinfectants in the water that select test samples showed there could be more chlorine in your tap water than in your swimming pool, Bowcock says.

You’re saying there’s more chlorine in my drinking water than my swimming pool?

Probably. The water district addresses that in a document about chlorine maintenance on its website: “Why are my swimming pool chlorine levels close to the levels of my drinking water?” They answer, “A normal level for drinking water disinfection can range from 1 parts per million to 4 parts per million, which is similar to chlorine levels found in swimming pools.”

What about that state violation Brockovich mentioned?

The NTMWD issued a statement late Thursday saying they’d been informed of the violation, however late Friday night corrected it, explaining the violation was a result of a miscommunication. In its revised statement, the district wrote, “Officials with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) have notified the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) that a violation posted online on Wednesday is being rescinded. The violation, cited by environmental activist Erin Brockovich during an appearance in Frisco Thursday, was for failing to conduct water samples at the district’s original water treatment plant in Wylie last year. That plant has been closed for renovations since January 2017 and is not producing water. According to a TCEQ statement sent to NTMWD, no tests are necessary on a plant that is not in operation. ‘We remain committed to engaging and listening to the people we serve,’ stated Tom Kula, NTMWD executive director. ‘We will continue to provide reliable and factual information regarding the safety of our drinking water supply.'”

You mentioned a curious website. What’s up?

If you go looking for the residents’ Safer Water North Texas website, you’ll find a search result SaferWaterNorthTexas.com near the top of the page. But that’s actually the water district’s website they launched sometime near March 23, shortly after all this water stuff started, according to Google’s cached page. To find the group’s site (launched March 20), you have to hunt on the second page of Google search results to find SaferWaterNTX.org, whereas the water district’s page is near the top of search results. It’s all quite confusing.

So, the water district has an aggressive PR campaign and good SEO for their website. What does that have to do with water safety?

It doesn’t really, but it’s interesting how much reaction this issue has garnered, and it all started in a very grassroots way on social media.

What are residents in the Safer Water North Texas group upset about?

They’re concerned about the “excessive disinfectant usage and the safety of the chlorine burn going on right now,” writes Safer Water North Texas Facebook group moderator Vy Lê in a post. In addition, members who’ve posted on the Facebook group seem especially concerned about the safety of the water they bathe in, saying circumstantial evidence shows their symptoms ranging from odd rashes to hair loss were alleviated after stopping their use of NTMWD water topically.

What do they hope to accomplish?

“The long-term goal is getting to the bottom of why and how excessive the disinfectant is in our water year-round, including if the use of chloramine is the best option to treat our water,” Lê writes.

What’s chloramine? I thought we were talking about chlorine.

Chloramine is chlorine with added ammonia, also called combined chlorine. As a disinfectant, chloramine is longer lasting — good for water that travels through a vast infrastructure of city pipes and water tanks until it reaches its final destination in your home’s faucets. But the trade-off is that it’s a weaker disinfectant, according to independent water experts cited by Bowcock.

Is chloramine safe?

Some organizations say that while monochloramine, the specific type of chloramine used to disinfect water, may be safe, the byproducts it creates as it does its job may introduce carcinogens into drinking water.

Let me see if I understand correctly. The water district’s water supply needed a stronger disinfectant to clean the water last month, so it used chlorine instead of the chlorine/ammonia mix called chloramine, and that’s when people complained about the strong “swimming pool” smell.

Yes, in the best plain language way of saying it. 

What causes the water supply to get so dirty that it needs a heavy-duty cleaning once a year?

Bowcock says Texas’ warm temperatures and low water usage are a few reasons.

Low water usage in Collin County? I thought that whole area was growing?

It is, but individual cities such as Plano enforce pretty strict water conservation edicts that limit residents from watering their lawns to certain days and times. During their peak conservation times, residents may only water their lawn once a week. In years past, the city of Plano manually flushed gallons of “dirty” water out onto the street during summer months. The water district says doing this routine chlorine maintenance helps reduce the amount of hydrant flushing needed, thereby helping conserve water.

So, what happens next in this whole water controversy?

Brockovich and Bowcock say they’re sticking around as long as residents here remain active and need help pursuing answers from city officials and the water district. Local ABC affiliate WFAA asked Brockovich if she would drink the water here herself. “After a chlorine burn? And what I just learned? No, I would be suspicious of it,” she said. “But I’m suspicious of all water because I know what goes on behind the scenes.”