News and Information

ODHS/OREM has issued a Grant to Tooley Water District providing free bottled drinking water

Oregon Department of Human Services and Oregon Resilience and Emergency Management have provided Tooley Water District with a short term grant to provide Tooley Water District members with free bottled water due to the fact that one of Tooley Water District's water sources is exceeding Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCL) above the allowed level on a regular basis of Nitrates.

This Grant will allow Tooley Water District members to receive bottled water on a monthly basis at no charge.

This Grant is a gap grant to allow for safe potable water until Tooley Water District is able to develop a new potable water source.

Water is Safe to Drink

Tooley Water District turned off the lower well a few weeks ago. We have been operating on only the upper well since that time. Tests have been taken and results have been received confirming that Nitrates are no longer an issue.

Tooley expects to be able to operate throughout the winter months utilizing only the upper well. We do not expect to have to turn on the lower well (the well with fluctuating nitrate levels) until next summer.

When we turn on the lower well we will provide door notifications. We will also update this website.

Latest nitrate levels quite high for the lower well

The most recent nitrate test for the lower well came in at 16 (with the maximum allowed contaminant level being 10). Thus, we are still recommending not to drink the water.

We are planning to turn off the lower well soon. It will take some time for the system to fully pump out all the contaminated water.

Keep your eye on this website as we will let you know when it is safe again to drink the water. Also, we intend to have our contractor Hiland Water send out an email blast when it is safe. Please make sure Hiland Water has your current email address if you would like to receive this information.

Warning!!! High Nitrate Levels in the water

On 8/10/23 a sample was taken from the lower well and provided to the labs for analysis. That result came back today reflecting 13.2 mg/L of Nitrate in the water. 10 mg/L is considered the Maximum allowable Contaminate Level (MCL) in community drinking water systems.

Tooley Water District is planning to keep this offending well operating through the summer months. Tooley Water District's contractor has been taking Nitrate samples from this well approximately every 2 weeks, and intends to keep up with that testing pattern moving forward.

We will update this website when Tooley Water District turns this offending well off for the winter. We plan to do this in late fall when water demand is reduced.

Please see the following link to a document with more details regarding Nitrates in drinking water.
Tooley Water District's contractor (Hiland Water) will be distributing this flyer to every Tooley Water District resident tomorrow (8/15).

http://www.tooleywater.org/sites/default/files/TooleyReports/Tooley%20Wa...

NOTICE - Turning on lower well with potential Nitrates

Notice: On June 1st Tooley Water District plans to turn on the lower well. This well has been known to have fluctuating nitrate levels to levels that can make the water unsafe to drink.

We plan to leave this well operating through the summer as our only other water source can not keep up with water demand during summer months.

Tooley Water District monitors the nitrate levels of this well about every 2 weeks and will notify you if high nitrate levels are detected. However, it should be noted that there can be considerable delay between the time a test sample is taken and the time high nitrate levels are identified.

Tooley Budget Schedules and Links

This thread will be updated as more information becomes available.

Budget Hearing Meeting: 6/21/23 @ 5:00pm
see http://www.tooleywater.org/node/534 for more information

LB1 for Budget Hearing
http://www.tooleywater.org/sites/default/files/TooleyReports/form-or-lb-...

Budget Hearing Agenda
http://www.tooleywater.org/sites/default/files/TooleyReports/20230621%20...

Budget Committee Meeting:
Budget Committee Meeting info - Meeting took place 5/17/23 @ 5:30pm

see http://www.tooleywater.org/node/532 for more information.

Notice of Budget Meeting: http://www.tooleywater.org/sites/default/files/TooleyReports/form-or-lb-...

Budget Committee Meeting Agenda Ver 1.1 updated 5/14/23: http://www.tooleywater.org/sites/default/files/TooleyReports/Budget%20Co...

Currently no nitrate issues with the water

Tooley Water District has shut off the lower well (monday 11/28/22) (the well which has nitrate issues) for the winter. We do not intend to turn the lower well on until late spring (when water demand requires the additional water).

We will update this website when we turn the lower well back on.

Turning on Lower Well

We are forced to turn back on the Lower Well. We have not received a new Nitrate reading from this well. The last reading was just below 10. 10 Is the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) recommended.

Please refer to the customer notification you should all have received on June 22, 2022. A copy of that notification is available for download here:
http://www.tooleywater.org/sites/default/files/TooleyReports/Tooley%20Wa...

Turning off Lower Well

Tooley Water District has received verbal confirmation that the latest Nitrate test for the lower well was near 10 (the maximum allowed).

As a precautionary measure we are shutting off the lower well.

Please make efforts to keep your usage to a minimum while we have the lower well off.

Edit: 7/22/22 8:00pm As a precaution, If you are concerned about Nitrates you should not drink the water for the next few days as the system runs through all the current water that included the lower well.