GERMANTOWN, Tenn. — The City of Germantown got its water testing results back Wednesday from Monday, July 31, and they're still showing diesel from a single test location.
According to the city, one fire hydrant located near Germantown Fire Station 3 came back testing for a small amount of "diesel organics" in the water. The city said that hydrant and others in the area were flushed, and a new sample will be tested.
This comes one day after the city gave the "all clear" from diesel contamination in the entire water supply, which forced Germantown to shut down the water supply for one week in July.
Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo told ABC24 a worker was filling a generator tank with diesel fuel so it could keep providing power to the city's water treatment facility, but for some reason, the technician didn't notice the tank had filled up and was spilling dozens of gallons of fuel before cutting off the supply. That worker was put on administrative leave.
He said the diesel drained down a slope, contaminating dirt above the source to a major storage tank.
The unnamed employee was a 'tenured' worker with the city, according to Palazzolo. It will take an investigation to determine if further action will be taken and perhaps explain why the employee failed to do anything when the fuel started spilling.
“Now much of this is still under investigation, but we can tell you a worker was here and was refilling the diesel tank below to keep the generator operating to provide power to the water treatment plant. At some point it overflowed and overflowed by a lot. By at least 100 gallons. It may be more… again, it's under investigation,” said Palazzolo. “The diesel fuel seeped into these massive tanks that hold some 4 million gallons of drinking water."
Palazzolo said the dirt has now been removed and the ground re-sodded.
Palazzolo apologized for what happened and promises steps are being taken so it won't happen again.
Germantown has set a town hall to discuss the water crisis on Thursday, Aug. 3 at 6 p.m. Learn how to submit questions HERE.