City issued EPA violation for unfinished Lead Service Line Inventory

POMEROY-The City of Pomeroy has been issued a violation by the Environmental Protection Agency for failure to complete the Lead Service Line Inventory (LSLI) according to the minutes of their Jan. 7 meeting.

The LSLI deadline was October 16, 2024. The City is required to issue a public notification informing Pomeroy citizens of the violation every quarter until the inventory is submitted. Staff have been working on the LSLI over several months and Crew Superintendent Mike Lockard "has not found any lead service lines so far during the inventory process and has not seen any during his 30 years working for the City," the minutes stated.

In response to public comment at a Garfield County Planning Commission meeting regarding taxes paid by wind energy companies, Mayor Jack Peasley brought a document outlining the local levies paid by Puget Sound Energy in 2023. The document showed that the City of Pomeroy received $69 in taxes.

Mayor Peasley acknowledged that Pomeroy residents benefit from taxes paid to other entities in Garfield County. Mayor Peasley also provided a map showing that, according to the Garfield County Zoning Ordinance adopted in March 2016, nearly the entirety of the City is within the Historical District Impact Area and thus excluded from the siting of wind energy towers, which must not be visible from the HDIA.

The City Council approved Ordinance 948 that amended Ordinance 787 Pomeroy Historic Preservation by reducing the number of voting members of the Historic Preservation Committee from seven to five and eliminating the requirement of three non-voting members. The council also approved the selection of Keller Associates as on-call engineering service provider for the City for a three-year term.