RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — Two Riviera Beach Special Utility Employees said staff members stopped them from fixing issues within the utility at a meeting Wednesday night when answering questions from the public about the city's water quality.
The employees revealed new details into issues within the utility while confirming WPTV Reporter Ethan Stein's digging into employees incorrectly retesting a water sample for E. coli in June 2023.
The city faced a fine worth about $80,000 for breaking state or federal laws while responding to the contamination event, such as not notifying the public within 24 hours and instead notifying in January 2024— almost seven months later.
John Armstrong, senior engineer for the utility district, said he was at the meeting with the health department and other employees to discuss the problem and pushed management to issue the public notice after the meeting and failed multiple times.
“We need to issue it as soon as possible,” Armstrong recalled saying to staff. “I brought that up several times after that meeting that same month and the public notice didn’t go out until the following year.”
Armstrong said some of the details around the delay weren’t told to administration or council and he hasn’t been contacted by the Office of Inspector General of Palm Beach County, who is conducting an independent investigation into the issue.
People attending the meeting about water quality asked for other staff members, who were involved in the meeting or aware of the issue. Armstrong couldn’t answer more questions as he was cut off by Assistant City Manager Deidre Jacobs because he was “uncomfortable” during the conversations.
“It’s been bothering me for a long time,” he said. "You see this on the news.”
Amilio Brown, who also works at the utility in a senior position, said staff members also asked him to not report certain issues related to the utility’s sewer system. He said he took the issue to the Office of Inspector General of Palm Beach County.
“I supplied him with all the evidence,” Brown said. “I had a whole folder and I handed it to him so there will be a report from the OIG that will be separate from the water [contamination].”
The city hosted the event to answer the question if E. coli was ever in the city’s drinking water. Officials said they are forced to assume it did get in the drinking water during June 2023 because it didn’t follow proper retesting procedures after finding E. coli in the water system.
It’s the first time officials acknowledged what an internal investigation found, which WPTV reported on in February. Originally, city officials said the E. coli never got into the city’s drinking water because the water was treated at the water plant.
Utility Director Michael Low lost his job over the problem. It’s unclear if his supervisor Assistant City Manager Deidre Jacobs knew of the problem as well.
Officials also said there were no other instances of E.Coli in the utility’s drinking water since the June test.
Documents WPTV received from a public records request show the city reported another positive E. coli water sample in August 2023. A spokesperson said the E. coli-positive sample from August 2023 was from one of the wells, not the drinking water.
The health department is currently investigating the utility for breaking state or federal law 189 times, according to documents received from a public records request. The case is still open as of Wednesday.
We reached out to the Health Department and the Inspector General’s Office in Palm Beach County late tonight and we’re still awaiting comment.
