BIG SPRING, Texas — The City of Big Spring received a final report from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality about exceeding the Maximum Contaminant Level for trihalomethanes in the city's drinking water earlier in 2021.
The increased level was a result of the winter storm, which is also when the city saw the increased levels. The issue has since been resolved, and there are no issues with the drinking water currently.
The maximum level set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is 0.080 mg/L. Big Spring had reached 0.081 mg/L earlier in 2021.
"One of the byproducts of that chlorination is the trihalomethanes, and it leeches out," Big Spring Mayor Shannon Thomason said. "So what ultimately happened was we had two quarters where we actually exceeded our trihalomethane limits."
Prolonged exposure, meaning years of exposure, can prove dangerous for people. That type of exposure can cause liver, kidney or central nervous system problems.
However, the exposure in Big Spring wasn't nearly that long.
Thomason said water issues in Big Spring are too common.
"It’s fairly routine, you know more routine than I’d like for it to be," Thomason said. "Obviously we have collection and testing points spread out all over town, so if any one of those has an issue, we report it to the state and then we report it to the citizens."
Those issues are one reason why Thomason said the city is investing into its water and sewer infrastructure, to prevent these kinds of problems from happening in the future.
"We’re putting a lot of money into our water infrastructure," Thomason said. "We've earmarked all of the ARP funds that we got from the federal government, the American Rescue Plan funds, for water and sewer infrastructure."