Report highlights problems within Sandy during water contamination

SANDY – Elected officials in Sandy say they’re getting a better grasp on what needs to be done to prevent water contamination, like they saw earlier this year.  The results of an independent investigation were released today.

Communication, or the lack thereof, was the biggest problem according to Sandy Mayor Kurt Bradburn.  He says it was bad at every level.

“We were human beings during an emergency situation.  We tried our best to put public health first,” he says.

He released the report, conducted by Parsons, Behle and Latimer.  However, he says there could be a lot more information released in the future.

Bradburn says, “This is just one investigation of many that are ongoing.”

One of the issues highlighted in the report happened at the Paradise Valley Well on February 5th.  It claims one worker is required to inspect the fluoride pump.  The worker claims he did inspect it and saw that it was not running.  However, he reportedly didn’t log that inspection, so there’s no way to verify it if happened.  On the 7th, a different worker claimed the pump actually was working.

“We really do have an investigation into all of those things.  What was logged, who was supposed to log it, what did or should have been logged and is there a better way to do that?” he says.

The report stopped short of saying city leaders hid information, but, it says the city didn’t comply with public notification requirements.  Bradburn admits that the city failed to tell residents exactly what was happening.

“Where I think a lot of the improvements that should have been made was the way we used all of you as mass media, the way we use social media and the notices we were required to send out.”