General (11)
Susana Barrios
From:Stephanie Mercadante <burglin.stephanie@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, May 12, 2026 6:26 PM
To:Public Comment
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] On Behalf of Jeanine Robbins, District 2, Councilmember Carlos Leon
Warning: This email originated from outside the City of Anaheim. Do not click links or open
attachments unless you recognize the sender and are expecting the message.
For public comment on May 12, 2026:
Residents continue to hear the same repeated message from this City: ‘The water is safe.’ But
reassurance without knowledge is not accountability.
Anaheim’s annual water quality report and the recent Water Quality presentation repeatedly assured
residents that our water “meets or exceeds regulatory thresholds”.
But the problem is that the report answers only the questions the City wants to answer, not the
questions residents are actually asking.
Residents called to complain about the flushing, but they weren't complaining about 5 minutes of
flushing; we know that is a routine operational function.
Residents called regarding 30 minutes to 60 minutes of flushing, multiple times a week. There
was so much flushing that it caused the asphalt to lift off the street. That is definitely not routine
flushing.
Under the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act and related state regulations, public water systems are
required to:
Conduct representative sampling
Maintain accurate records
Submit truthful monitoring
And comply with approved sampling protocols.
Let’s walk through this:
A valve that was long since closed was abruptly reopened on September 17th to 22%
City employees raised concerns to management to close the valve; they knew opening a valve
at that amount would adversely affect the water quality
Management ignored their warnings
On September 23, management was told to come look at the water, and employees asked
again for permission to close the valve.
Management again ignored their warnings
This is what the water SHOULD look like: \[Poster of clean water shown in the Council
Meeting\]. But, on September 23, this is what your drinking water actually looked
like: \[Poster of purple/brown water shown in the Council Meeting\]. And on Sept 24, it got even
1
worse; this looks like sewage water instead of drinking water: \[Poster of brown water
shown in the Council Meeting\].
And then excessive flushing was noticed and reported by residents beginning in September
and continued up until approximately March of this year.
So how can the City still confirm our drinking water is safe?
Residents are still waiting for an explanation.
2
Susana Barrios
From:Stephanie Mercadante <burglin.stephanie@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, May 12, 2026 8:04 PM
To:Public Comment
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] Re: On Behalf of Jeanine Robbins, District 2, Councilmember Carlos Leon
Attachments:Screenshot_20260510_185304_Gallery.jpeg; Screenshot_20260510_185247
_Gallery.jpeg
Warning: This email originated from outside the City of Anaheim. Do not click links or open
attachments unless you recognize the sender and are expecting the message.
Update:
I am submitting the images shown at the Council meeting, as the camera adjustments prevented online
viewers from seeing them. For ease of reference, I have included the images below and attached them.
Thank you.
On Tue, May 12, 2026 at 6:26 PM Stephanie Mercadante <burglin.stephanie@gmail.com> wrote:
1
For public comment on May 12, 2026:
Residents continue to hear the same repeated message from this City: ‘The water is safe.’ But
reassurance without knowledge is not accountability.
Anaheim’s annual water quality report and the recent Water Quality presentation repeatedly assured
residents that our water “meets or exceeds regulatory thresholds”.
But the problem is that the report answers only the questions the City wants to answer, not the
questions residents are actually asking.
Residents called to complain about the flushing, but they weren't complaining about 5 minutes of
flushing; we know that is a routine operational function.
Residents called regarding 30 minutes to 60 minutes of flushing, multiple times a week. There
was so much flushing that it caused the asphalt to lift off the street. That is definitely not routine
flushing.
Under the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act and related state regulations, public water systems are
required to:
Conduct representative sampling
Maintain accurate records
Submit truthful monitoring
And comply with approved sampling protocols.
Let’s walk through this:
A valve that was long since closed was abruptly reopened on September 17th to 22%
City employees raised concerns to management to close the valve; they knew opening a
valve at that amount would adversely affect the water quality
Management ignored their warnings
On September 23, management was told to come look at the water, and employees asked
again for permission to close the valve.
Management again ignored their warnings
This is what the water SHOULD look like: \[Poster of clean water shown in the Council
Meeting\]. But, on September 23, this is what your drinking water actually looked
like: \[Poster of purple/brown water shown in the Council Meeting\]. And on Sept 24, it got
even worse; this looks like sewage water instead of drinking water: \[Poster of brown
water shown in the Council Meeting\].
And then excessive flushing was noticed and reported by residents beginning in September
and continued up until approximately March of this year.
So how can the City still confirm our drinking water is safe?
Residents are still waiting for an explanation.
2