RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — The Palm Beach inspector general’s office said it will release its report on the city’s response to a water contamination event next week.

Water Treatment Plant Superintendent Melvin Pinkney resigned earlier this week. City officials have not said whether his resignation was voluntary or if he was terminated.

Riviera Beach Mayor Ronnie Felder asked the office for an investigation in February after the city waited seven months to notify the public about faecal bacteria and E.coli being present in the city’s drinking water supply.

Initially, city staff said the Riviera Beach Special Utilities District water treatment plant removed the contaminants. However, emails obtained by WPTV show that the city did not notify the public because it believed that positive tests of water samples were “false positives” after the city failed to conduct proper testing procedures.

The city did its own investigation into the incident, but council members were not privy to the investigation. Officials have waited nine months for the investigation, which should include a response from the city about who was aware of the problem and when they were aware of it.

A health department investigation found the utility violated Florida law 13 times after finding coliform bacteria and feces in treated water provided to customers. The company, which is governed by Riviera Beach and serves customers in both the city and some surrounding areas, paid a fine of $80,842.60.

LOW BLAMED THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT FOR THE PROBLEMS

Finally, the fine led to the board fires director of utilities Michael Low, and on the resignation of Assistant Director of Utilities Stephen Doyle. Low blamed the health department for creating a “misunderstanding” about the situation and continued to maintain that E.coli did not enter the water in a letter obtained by WPTV.

“The unfortunate events leading up to the observed violations have served to undermine the public’s trust and confidence in the quality of its water supply,” he wrote to the health department in April.

Low said the violations were the result of procedural missteps by the Riviera Beach Special Utility District. He said these created uncertainties about water quality rather than contamination.

“However, while the area of ​​water quality uncertainty is limited to a collection of a few customers on the southwestern-most edge of the service area, the widely repeated public comment is that e-Coli has been widespread throughout the system ,” Low wrote the department in April. “This has led to increasing claims of gastrointestinal illness, nausea and other ailments that are now being inappropriately attributed to the water supply.”

MORE PROBLEMS

Regardless of the report’s findings, WPTV has found various other issues within the utility over the past year that will not appear in this specific report.

That includes three other investigations into violations of water quality laws and at least one other investigation by the Palm Beach County Office of the Inspector General that could result in millions of dollars in taxpayer fines.