Drinking Water Not Tested In March: Village

MOKENA, IL — The Village of Mokena sent a notice to some residents alerting them that a required monthly test of drinking water was not completed in March. The notice was dated Sept. 30, six months after the reported violation occurred.

The notification to residents about the lapse in testing fell within the timeframe of IEPA's requirement to notify people of violations, according to Mokena's Assistant Public Works Director Dan Peloquin.

"During the month of March, 2021, we did not complete all monitoring testing for coliform and chlorine, which is classified as a violation, and therefore we cannot be sure of the quality of our drinking water during that time," the notice to residents stated.

Samples of drinking water are collected each month and submitted to an independent lab for testing, according to the notice. Samples are tested for various contaminants at various time in a given year, according to Peloquin.

In March, samples were taken but some were not tested within the 30-hour time limit, making the samples "stale" and unusable for testing, according to the notice. The samples should have been retaken at some point in March, but "due to miscommunication between the Village and Suburban Labs, they were not resampled within the allotted timeframe," the notice stated.

There are typically 20 samples taken from multiple locations throughout the village in a given month, Peloquin said. In March, 10 samples were submitted and properly tested, and 10 were not, Peloquin said.

The Village called the missed testing "an outlier," since "all other samples taken from January, 2021, through the present time have been in full compliance with IEPA standards."

The Village asked residents who received the notice to "Please share this information with all other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly," including those in apartments, nursing homes, schools and businesses.

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