Kenai residents received elevated arsenic in drinking water notices this week, a result of the increased water usage at the airport while crews were fighting the Card Street Fire.
City manager Rick Koch said this also happened in 2014 during the Funny River Fire.
Koch: “Precisely the same reason but for a much shorter period of time, we have a level of increased water production this year and we were losing a little bit and didn’t want our reservoir to go down too far. And so we brought on two real low production wells that have a slightly elevated arsenic levels that go into the system that mixes with a lot more low arsenic water but we have to put out a notice nonetheless. We’re anticipating shutting those off on June 30.”
The City of Kenai is working on improving the water system.
Koch: “A number of water system improvements that include another reservior that’s in design right now as well as several other wells. We’ve been working towards this for a number of years and we certainly hope by next year our water production is significantly greater than any anticipated load that we may get.”
Koch said he hopes these large fires are not the annual normal however the city is preparing for the worst possible scenario.