What are the fine white particles floating in the water from the tap?  This has been present since before the water main break.  I noticed it when the bottom of my tea kettle was coated with what I thought was hard water deposits but after I cleaned the kettle (vinegar then rinse with water) the same deposit was seen after only one kettle of boiled water. I have been boiling my water - and still see those particles floating in the water.  These particles pass through a coffee filter and I even see a few in the post Brita filtered water. I am worried they may be hazardous. Even water used to boil potatoes may need to be filtered prior to use.

Big Basin Woods Subdivision Wastewater Plant Property Owners and Other Interested Parties, We are providing you with an update on the status of the wastewater plant now that a key milestone has been met. The contract operator reports they have fixed and replaced various key facility components over the last couple of months. The contract operator and Big Basin Water Company report the treatment aspects of the facility appear to be in basic working order. The plant was seeded yesterday with sludge from another plant (this basically inoculates the facility with beneficial microorganisms that are a key part of wastewater treatment) to speed things up. Big Basin Water Company reports a generator was delivered to the site yesterday. Big Basin Water Company and the contract operator report that next steps include working on the disposal aspects of the facility (equipment, controls, and testing of the leachfields) and setting up the generator to operate the plant during power outages. The plant won’t begin disposing of wastewater in the leachfields until additional work on the disposal aspects has been completed and the plant has enough time to safely treat the wastewater. Once the plant is achieving treatment (operator estimates a minimum of couple of weeks after seeding but this is their best estimate never having run the plant before and not knowing how hard/easy this will be) they will start collecting water quality samples. We will require weekly reporting of water quality samples for the initial startup period so that we can learn as soon as possible when the facility has stabilized and if it is safely treating the wastewater for disposal. Once the facility is producing adequate treatment, we will approve Big Basin Water Company to accept additional flows from the homes that are completed. This will be conditional, such that they can accept new flows as homes are finished but if the plant stops working adequately, they will need to stop accepting additional flows. Big Basin Water Company reports that they have signed a temporary operations agreement with Central States Water Resources (the company from Missouri that wants to purchase the wastewater and drinking water assets) where Central States Water Resources will collect fees from owners and hire a contract operator to run the facility. Central States Water Resources reports today that they expect to have a fully executed temporary operations agreement in place by the end of the week. The current contract operator, Central Coast Water Board, and the County all know how important and time sensitive this all is for many of you, and we will continue to review and respond to the contract operator promptly to keep things moving forward. The Central Coast Water Board is also actively continuing to work with the Attorney General’s office on the ongoing enforcement case for the wastewater facility. We can’t share details due to confidentiality, but we are diligently working on this key aspect knowing how important this facility is in many of your lives. We’ll send you another update once another key milestone is met (e.g., facility is safely disposing of wastewater). If you’d like to be removed from this list or know of someone who didn’t receive it, please let us know. Best regards, Central Coast Water Board Staff