A filter failure at the City of St. Clairsville’s water treatment plant in mid-December led to a significant spike in turbidity in the water there, but the water the residents see coming from their faucets was unharmed, according to the city’s public service and safety director.

St. Clairsville Public Service and Safety Director Scott Harvey said Tuesday that fast action from staff at the treatment plant kept that turbid water from getting to the public. Workers had already switched over to the city’s backup system of Belmont County water before it had the chance.

“The reaction time was good by our operators,” Harvey said.

According to Harvey and a letter sent to St. Clairsville water customers, on Dec. 11, turbidity in the water plant spiked from 1.47 turbidity units to 12.83 in about an hour. One turbidity unit is considered standard. While turbidity, or cloudiness, itself has no health effects, it can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth.

Harvey said there was a failure in the underdrain in one of three filters the city’s treatment plant uses. The underdrain holds the sand that filters the water and, when it failed, it pushed some of that sand into the clear well, where the finished water is held.

“Once it failed, we immediately shut off the folder system and we switched from city water to county water,” he said. “None of the sand actually reached the water system.”

That filter has been repaired, Harvey said, but the city is waiting to run some more tests and perhaps bring officials with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in to look at it before it goes back online. Until then, with the city filters running at two-thirds capacity, county water is being used to make up the difference.

Since the turbid water did not reach the city’s system, Harvey said, no boil order was needed. He said the Ohio EPA suggested the city send the notice on Dec. 23 out of precaution and transparency.

If turbid or otherwise unclean water did hit the system, Harvey said the city would use its alert system to quickly notify residents of a boil order.