General (08)
Susana Barrios
From:Stephanie Mercadante <burglin.stephanie@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, August 11, 2026 5:48 PM
To:Public Comment
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] On Behalf of Stephanie Mercadante, District 4, Councilmember Norma
Campos Kurtz
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 August 11, 2026:
Concerned citizens have continued asking valid questions about Anaheim's water quality. This Council
and City leadership provided an overview, but still haven't answered specific questions.
The one admission we finally received concerned the shutdown date for Well 51. But the City could
hardly deny that one. The dates didn't match.
And now we know there IS a problem, one that was broadcast across Channels 2, 4, 5, and 7.
The question is: Will you continue to deny it?
Between October 2025 and June 2026, two audits of Anaheim Water Operations were conducted under
Public Utilities leadership.
These weren't insignificant reviews. Their stated purposes included protecting public health, ensuring
drinking-water compliance, identifying system risks and vulnerabilities, and recommending
improvements to water production, water quality, SCADA, and HMI.
In October, Brown & Caldwell auditors LeAnna Risso and Leslie Knapp observed Water System
Operators on shift. Operators spent hours answering questions and identifying areas where Anaheim's
water system could be improved.
Then, Water Operations Superintendent Richard Salas announced another audit intended to ensure the
“Protection of Public Health” and regulatory compliance.
Its scope included Lenain, the distribution system, and Anaheim's Ion Exchange treatment facilities.
And those facilities matter now.
On July 28th, multiple system supply wells shut down simultaneously. Residents lost water. Angel
Stadium lost water. Disneyland lost water. Even City Hall lost water.
These weren't hypothetical vulnerabilities anymore.
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They happened.
And operators had already raised concerns about systemic issues, management protocols, and
deficiencies involving the newer Ion Exchange systems.
If those wells weren't configured correctly, they couldn't operate correctly.
Yet the auditors are gone, taxpayers have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the public still
hasn't seen the findings.
That's particularly concerning because in 2024, the California State Auditor already found that Anaheim
“lacked a meaningful contract monitoring process.”
So what did these auditors find?
Did they identify SCADA deficiencies? Missing safeguards? Testing problems? Management failures?
Did they identify vulnerabilities that could have prevented July 28?
We don't know, because Anaheim hasn't released the reports.
So stop asking residents to simply trust that everything is fine.
Release the reports. Release the findings. Release the recommendations.
Tell us what was identified, what was corrected, and what wasn't.
Because after July 28, this Council should be asking one very simple question:
Did Anaheim's own auditors identify these problems before the failure occurred?
And if they did, what did the City do about them?
The taxpayers paid for these answers.
It's time they received them.
And this question is directly to Craig Parker. Is this matter still closed, or are you finally going to
realize you can’t pretend all is well in your Water Department any longer?
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