Thanks, again, to the Pioneer Days committee, all the volunteers, service providers, participants and all who helped to make Pioneer Days possible.

There are too many people to thank individually. So, I won’t try. You know who you are, and I want you to know, without your willingness to serve and build upon the work of those who went before you, there would be no Pioneer Days. But, working together, this community remains home to a festival, now looking to its 53rd year. Quite an accomplishment when you think about it. Pioneer Days is the reason for all the other activities that surround the festival and Marlinton is better for it.

A citizen called with concerns about why the Town was conducting extra water sampling over the past few weeks. The Lead and Copper Rule, 40 C.F.R. Sections 141 .80 to 141.91, requires monitoring at consumer taps to identify levels of lead in drinking water that may result from corrosion of lead-bearing components in a public water system’s distribution system or in household plumbing. These samples help assess the need for effective corrosion control treatment.

Because of this concern, you should know that other testing will be taking place in the next couple of months. The new requirement is for Cryptosporidium. Plans are underway to comply with the requirements of the Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2).  A system that conducts Cryptosporidium monitoring must be conducted at least twice (2) per month for twelve (12) months or once (1) per month for twenty-four (24) months. Systems monitoring for Cryptosporidium must begin monitoring no later than April 2019. The Town of Marlinton hopes to begin monitoring by September 1, 2018.

Also, laboratories must be certified by the West Virginia Office of Laboratory Services for Cryptosporidium monitoring.  Currently there are none certified in the state. If that remains the case, going forward we will have to use a list of laboratories currently certified by another state and ask them to obtain reciprocity with West Virginia. This list is supposed to be updated periodically on the EPA website at epa.gov/dwreginfo/long-term-2-enhanced-surface-water-treatmentrule-documents.

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