FLORENCESC – Florence’s water system was repressurized Saturday and the city’s boil water order could be lifted as early as Sunday morning.

This was the message following a special meeting of the Florence City Council at 8 a.m. Saturday morning.

The cause of the problem has been attributed to the management of the city’s water treatment plant – and a solution is being worked on.

“We made immediate corrections with the staff there,” City Manager Scotty Davis told council members after a board meeting. “We had standard procedures that were not being followed. Management-level staff should have been informed of these incidents sooner.”

The city could lift its boil water advisory as early as Sunday morning, Davis said.

The situation began when the city was faced with untreatable water from the Great Pee Dee River.

“Many of the upstream communities get their water directly from the river; we have a reservoir. We take water from the river, let it sit in the reservoir and settle, then treat it and pump it into the system,” Davis said. “The water in the reservoir was basically contaminated, bad water. We couldn’t treat it or get it under control. It clogs our filters; there’s something wrong with that water.”

This left the system’s reservoir with 15 million gallons of untreatable water in the city.

“They should have called a higher-level employee immediately when they realized something was wrong. They overreached themselves trying to do the right thing, but it was too late. They decided to shut the system down, but they didn’t inform the higher-level employees that they had decided to shut the system down,” Davis said. “When we found out, everyone else found out. I called the director, and he didn’t know anything about it.”

“We had to dump the 15 million gallons of contaminated water that we had taken directly from the river, refill it and start the process that way. It took 8 to 12 hours. By 8 p.m. last night, the system was under pressure,” he said.

After pressure was restored, the city began water testing to ensure that low pressure did not allow untreated water into the system, Davis said.

So far, all tests have been positive, said Florence Mayor George Jebaily.

Under normal circumstances, Davis said, the city would have filled its water tanks and asked residents to conserve water until the problem was resolved.

“We would have issued a notice and we would have definitely notified McLeod (Department of Health). We would have notified everyone. Here is a problem that will happen x number of times. We need to shut down the system, fill the tanks and get 12 to 14 wells running so they can pump water into the system,” Davis said.

According to published reports, McLeod Regional Medical Center was supplied by a tanker shuttle system that included several area fire departments and additional tankers delivering water from Darlington.

The fix will take some time.

“A two-step process. We’re going to make some personnel changes, but we’ve also contracted CM Smith to work with the personnel, train them, while also making sure we’re running the plant properly,” Davis said. “We already have a contract with them to train some senior staff. We’re also looking to hire A-Operator staff, which is the highest-level operator.”

Recruiting those operators will be a challenge because they could work in any part of the state, and utilities in Charleston and Columbia already face challenges recruiting top-notch operators, Davis said.

Friday’s water problems came as the city is expanding its water system not only to deliver several million gallons of water daily to an AESC battery plant on East Old Marion Highway, but also to extend lines to better support the system overall.

“There were certainly some teething issues here, and that’s part of it,” Davis said.

“Growth is great, controlled growth is great, smart growth is what we want in the city and this is part of it, the problems we are feeling,” Davis said.

“In this case, we dropped the ball. We took ownership. We made corrections. We’re making progress. We’re going to get some bumps and bruises along the way, but we’re moving forward,” Davis said.