ELECTION 2021: Saline City Council Candidates on the City of Saline's Drinking Water

Voters in the City of Saline will elect three citizens to Saline City Council in Tuesday's election. The candidates are incumbents Jim Dell'Orco, Jack Ceo and Kevin Camero-Sulak, and Brian Cassise.

Kevin Camero-Sulak chose not to answer our questions.

(More questions and answers here)

QUESTION: Are you satisfied with the city's response to the fairly frequent "brown drinking water" complaints? Does more need to be done?

(Note: This question was originally asked and answered in September.)

Jack Ceo: No, I am not. That’s why we are continuing to work on the problem, and why we are making this matter the subject of a work session of Council on September 13th. There is obviously a problem that we have yet to determine an exact cause for. The water leaves our Treatment Plant clean and clear, yet it arrives at some homes in the community stained and dirty. Somewhere in the distribution system, something is happening to our water. Something more must be done to clear up this problem. We will come up with an appropriate resolution to insure the clarity and quality of our water to all our citizens.

Jim Dell'Orco: The solution to the issue with iron sediment in the drinking water can be resolved with a more proactive approach to when the DPW schedules the flushing of the water distribution system. We intend to have this moved to late summer as opposed to early fall to avoid this issue in the future. This has proven difficult in the past couple years with the aforementioned staffing level concerns. Options are currently being evaluated for restructuring at the DPW.

Brian Cassise: Fortunately my exposure has been limited but I do frequently hear of this complaint from neighbors. More has to be done. What’s not clear is that we fully understand the problem. Is is the piping or how the water is being delivered or conditioned or what’s different for parts of the city.

Kevin Camero-Sulak: No answer.

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