Carroll City Manager, Mike Pogge-Weaver, was part of contingent that traveled to Washington, D.C. last week to meet with our legislators. The group discussed local issues with a goal of working together on successful outcomes. In this, his second annual trip, Pogge-Weaver says the city brought back a topic that they had taken for discussion last year as well.
The conversations are really trying to lay the groundwork and brainstorm about solutions on the mandated regulations that are slated to be incorporated by 2021. Pogge-Weaver says that he wants to be clear that though this is a complicated topic, it is not one that impacts the health of residents.
Because Carroll sits at the headwaters, there is not a lot of flow so communities downstream have more dilution and can discharge more. He says they have discussed the possibility of being exempted from the regulations or getting government assistance to help with the removal costs.
City leaders are asking about the possibility of grant dollars and other methods to get federal and state help to help pay for the process. The city has also been testing to find where the copper originates, but has found that it is coming from all different points of town, not any one area in particular. Pogge-Weaver says they believe a large portion of it is coming from the copper pipes in older homes and the softening processes that use salt, corroding those pipes at a more rapid rate. The second issue the city took to U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst and Congressman Steve King references the Carroll Rec Center and upcoming upgrades. Carroll Broadcasting will bring you more about that topic in an upcoming report.
