Nearly a year after the Tubbs fire melted water pipes in Fountaingrove and contaminated sections of the area’s water system with benzene, the city is optimistic it will soon be able to notify residents the problem has been resolved.
The most recent tests made before another round of repairs showed only trace amounts of the cancer-causing chemical in the area’s water system, at levels under state-mandated safety limits, according to Jennifer Burke, the city’s deputy director of water and engineering resources.
Worrisome levels of benzene were also detected in some surrounding areas as far out as Coffey Park as the city attempted to find the mysterious source of the benzene, spurring additional attention and replacement of water lines.
Anticipating the test results will show the contamination problem has been resolved, the city is hosting a community meeting Wednesday night to explain its plans moving forward.
The water quality advisory could be lifted as soon as early October, Burke said.
That’s in stark contrast from prior concerns the entire water system would need replacing, at a cost estimated at more than $40 million earlier this summer.
The overhaul would need two years if done quickly, city officials said, putting a cloud over rebuilding efforts in the area.
Burke said the work cost roughly $8 million.
If that funding is not available, a bill authored by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, would steer FEMA mitigation dollars toward rebuild projects from the 2017 wildfires.
Once the water advisory is lifted, Burke said the city’s water department will continue benzene testing for at least a year to make sure residents are safe.

When Jan Verspecht returned in November to his Fountaingrove home, which miraculously survived the Tubbs fire, he turned on the water and noticed a strange odor.
When he heard that the water in his area was contaminated with benzene, a chemical city officials believe originated from melting plastic pipes and system components, he was actually relieved.
“As soon as I heard it was only benzene, I was like ‘OK.
But Verspecht, who doesn’t have training in water quality issues, is convinced he has found a way to easily remove any traces of the compound from the city-supplied water that flows into his Fountaingrove home.
Engineers solve problems,” Verspecht, who is from Belgium and who moved to Santa Rosa in 2012 after Keysight purchased his startup company.
The solution Verspecht came up with was to install a $5,000 whole-house activated carbon water filter, which he said has removed all traces of toxic compounds.
“I can guarantee it, the water that we drink is the purest that any Santa Rosan can drink,” Verspecht told the City Council recently.
“There is hope.” City officials have been under tremendous pressure to figure out how to restore clean water to an area of 350 homesites in Fountaingrove with contaminated water mains.
Residents trying to figure out how to rebuild were not pleased and told the city that if it didn’t find a better solution, there wasn’t going to be anyone returning to the area.
After originally resisting the idea of installing filtration systems, Ben Horenstein, director of Santa Rosa Water, now says it could be just the break the city needs.

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.

Some drinking water in Santa Rosa remains undrinkable months after the North Bay fires, and pressure is mounting on the city’s water department to locate and control the cause.
“The city is very interested to get people back and rebuilt into their homes, of course, as soon as possible,” says Bennett Horenstein, the City of Santa Rosa’s Water Director.
Then its tests found benzene, a chemical that can cause cancer.
“This contamination is certainly attributable to the fire,” says Horenstein, “specifically the heating and burning of different plastic components in the system.” Initial sampling found benzene in the Fountaingrove water main, the local service components, and the lines that connected to destroyed properties.
The water lines in that part of Santa Rosa lost pressure in the fire, which officials say could have helped benzene to spread further when equipment melted.
Initial samples found 87 instances where that limit was exceeded, mostly, but not exclusively, in the Fountaingrove neighborhood.
Horenstein stressed that the benzene in areas outside Fountaingrove was less pervasive, and had not been found in the city’s mains.
Still, water department investigators now are looking for melted plastic components, benzene, and explanations in Coffey Park as well as Fountaingrove.
“We’re just seeing some, maybe 10 percent of these homes, have concerns with benzene.
But he acknowledges Santa Rosa’s problems may have implications for future fires in other cities.

Santa Rosa may be zeroing in on the cause of the contamination in the water supply of the devastated Fountaingrove neighborhood, but there are also troubling signs that the problem may extend beyond the immediate advisory area.
Since Jan. 24, when the city last released detailed test results, the city has found 58 additional instances of benzene in the drinking water in the Fountaingrove area.
The vast majority came from the 184-acre area north and south of Fountain Ggrove Parkway around Fir Ridge Drive, an area once home to 350 families.
Only 13 homes remain following the October wildfires.
Residents of the area have been under a strict advisory for months to not drink or boil the water while the city tries to find the source of the contamination and fix the problem, something that could cost upwards of $20 million if the area’s water system needs replacement.
The maximum containment level (or MLC) for benzene in drinking water in the state is 1 part per billion.
The first batch contained four test results showing benzene levels over 500 parts per billion, one of which was as high as 918 parts per billion.
But seven of those results were from outside the existing advisory area.
Six of those results were under 10 ppb, while the seventh was something of an outlier at 240 parts per billion, Horenstein said.
All the seven locations are located at burned home sites.