Carmel Utilities plans to update communications after boil water advisory lifted

Indianapolis Star

a day ago

Carmel Utilities has lifted the boil water advisory for West Carmel, but not before the outage could fuel complaints about what some viewed as the city's lack of communication about the incident. The department has plans in the works to update its communications system.
The advisory had been in place since the morning of Aug. 11 after a fire hydrant was unexpectedly blown off the water line, potentially contaminating the water supply.
'As anticipated, the test results came back absent for any bacteriological contamination in our system,' Lane Young, director of Carmel Utilities, said after the boil water advisory was lifted on the afternoon of Aug. 13. 'We trust this result gives our customers confidence in our system and the safe water we provide for their use.'
The advisory affected residents within the boundaries of the Hamilton County border to the west, 146th Street to the north, 96th Street to the south, and U.S. 31 and College Avenue to the east.
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Now that the advisory has been lifted, the Hamilton County Health Department is reminding residents within the boundaries of the advisory, or anyone who lost water pressure during that time, to take steps to ensure their water is safe for use.
'It's important to take a few minutes to flush and clean your water systems,' Amy Ballman, director of Environmental Health at the Hamilton County Health Department said in a news release. 'This ensures that any potentially contaminated water is cleared from your plumbing, appliances, and fixtures.'
The Health Department recommends residents take the following steps:
Some residents voiced frustration with Carmel Utilities on social media during the boil water advisory. Many were frustrated they were not alerted via text message or email about the situation.
'I only heard about it from checking social media,' said Annemarie Barr, who lives in Carmel with her family.
Barr told IndyStar she could have been feeding her 3-month-old son the potentially contaminated water all day had she not checked social media after her husband said their home lost water pressure.
Even Mayor Sue Finkam weighed in on one of the critical posts on the Carmel Social Media page on Facebook.
"The communication process will be reviewed because it definitely can and should be improved," she wrote.
Young, director of Carmel Utilities, admitted his department is behind when it comes to communication with customers.
'Our team did an amazing job operationally finding the issue and getting it corrected as far as water flow and getting water back in our system,' Young said. 'We did not have the communication vehicle to blast an e-mail or a text. That's something we're working on.'
Soon, possibly over the next few days, Carmel Utilities customers will have an online portal for customers to pay bills, view their water usage, update their contact information and opt into email or text message communications, Young said.