The city of Santa Rosa is set to update residents on the water quality investigation in the aftermath of the October fires which damaged a number of underground plastic pipes.
Officials announced in November that a number of underground plastic pipes were damaged by the destructive wildfires, resulting in contamination in an isolated area of the City’s water distribution system and a a Water Quality Advisory warning issued for 13 homes in the Fountaingrove area.
This advisory went into effect after elevated levels of benzene were detected in the drinking water system, Santa Rosa Water said.
"No question when plastics burn and melt, they give off constituents you would not want in your water supply," Santa Rosa’s Director of Water, Ben Horenstein, told KQED.
The wind-whipped flames destoyed at least eight sections of piping — ranging anywhere from 15 to 18 inches in diameter to as large as 36 inches in diameter in Fountaingrove neighborhood, according to Horenstein.
