Paden City officials have until Sept. 19 to update the West Virginia Public Service Commission as to whether the city has installed a manual transfer switch to the air stripper unit at its water treatment plant.

A malfunction of that air stripper unit led to Paden City residents being unable to drink, bathe in or wash clothes in city water for a month between August and September 2023. A power outage led to a valve issue, which then led to increased levels of a dry cleaning chemical — tetrachloroethylene, or PCE — to enter the system. It took weeks to flush out the city’s water system.

The PSC announced that order Tuesday and said Paden City has 10 days to comply. Compliance might not be that difficult, according to Paden City Mayor Clyde Hochstrasser. He said via text Tuesday evening that the switch, which needed to be special ordered and “took time to come in,” was installed about a year ago.

Last June, the PSC ordered Paden City to continue monitoring test results for contaminants and inform the PSC each month. Last July, the PSC ordered Paden City to “immediately” install a manual transfer switch to provide a backup electrical source for the air stripper in case of another power outage.

According to the order, Paden City had asked the PSC last July to reconsider and allow the city to install a temporary electric circuit, because it did not yet have all the parts to install a manual transfer switch.

The PSC last September agreed to let Paden City install the temporary electric circuit, with the goal remaining to install a permanent manual transfer switch. In Tuesday’s order, the commission mentioned that PCE levels have been well below the maximum limit, but there has been no update on whether the manual switch has been installed.

“Notwithstanding the improvement in PCE levels as shown by monthly testing, failure to file the monthly reports on the acquisition and installation of an automatic transfer switch is not acceptable,” the order stated. “An unexpected change in the levels of PCE could require immediate action and we require information as to the action that can be taken immediately or before the chemical could get into the distribution system.”

So Paden City must file a report updating the PSC on the status of that part and, 10 days after that, the PSC will have staff file a recommendation as to whether the capability to operate the air stripper through an automatic transfer switch is still critically important, whether Paden City can protect its water supply from contamination through the temporary switch, with the city has “delayed unreasonably” in installing the new part and whether the case should remain open.