In the most detailed explanation yet of the unfolding water crisis, city officials outlined in a public meeting how they believe the water system serving 350 home sites in the devastated neighborhood became contaminated with a cancer-causing hydrocarbon, and just how complicated, costly and time-consuming its replacement may be.
The contamination problem has been known since November, and the city has been open in recent months that its investigation into the source was zeroing in on melting plastic pipes and other components of the water system.
Carol Ellen, 70, said she and her partner had already spent $60,000 in various architectural fees and other costs preparing to rebuild, only to learn recently from the city that it might not be possible.
“We are ready to begin building in May.
“Where does our water come from?” John Stratton, a Fountaingrove resident and engineer at Keysight Technologies said he relied on the city’s earlier “worst-case scenario” that a full replacement might take a year.
“What I see here today, it might be the commitment is to move out of state.” City officials said the water-system work would have to be done while other contractors were busy rebuilding homes in the area, complicating the overhaul.
But Stratton said city officials were kidding themselves.
City water officials, led by Ben Horenstein, director of Santa Rosa Water, outlined in detail how the city responded to the discovery of benzene in the system, leading to an investigation that has identified where it came from and how it got into the system.
Emma Walton, a water refuse engineer, explained that benzene, a hydrocarbon and a human carcinogen typically associated with gasoline, can leach out of plastics when heated to high temperatures.
Tests that showed that when burned materials were soaked in clean water, the water came away contaminated with benzene and other hydrocarbons.