ECUA declines invite to town hall on drinking water

The Emerald Coast Utility Authority will not have a representative at tonight’s “What’s in Our Water?” town hall that will be held 6-8 p.m. at E.S. Cobb Resource Center, 601 E Mallory St.

ECUA did send the organizers a one-page statement that described the utility and its water system. It stated, “The ECUA’s 2017 CCR (Consumer Confidence Report) is now available, and demonstrates our full compliance (their emphasis) with all federal regulations governing public water systems in the the United States.”

While the utility said it appreciated the invitation to be part of the panel discussion, “the genesis of the Town Hall discussion was, in large part, based on a recently published article about a particular family of chemical compounds, which are the focus of a nation-wide discussion related to water quality. The ECUA recently filed a law suit to recover costs related to treatment and removal of these chemical compounds. Keep in mind, the ECUA finished product water meets every single EPA and FDEP water quality requirement without exception.”

The statement ended with, “We respectfully decline the invitation to participate in this panel discussion because of pending litigation and the obvious need to refrain from making comments about the issue in a public forum.”

The article that ECUA referenced was published in our May 31 issue: “Pensacola’s Drinking Water Questioned Again.”

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Author: Rick Outzen

Rick Outzen is the publisher/owner of Pensacola Inweekly. He has been profiled in The New York Times and featured in several True Crime documentaries. Rick also is the author of the award-winning Walker Holmes thrillers. His latest nonfiction book is “Right Idea, Right Time: The Fight for Pensacola’s Maritime Park.”