MIRAMAR, Fla. – Miramar’s mayor said he is addressing residents’ concerns about costly copper pipe repairs, which are plaguing many homeowners.
The method in the way Miramar treats their water is being blamed, but the city has stated previously they don’t believe that to be the case.
However, Mayor Wayne Messam said on Thursday that the city has retained outside engineers to further investigate the water treatment system.
“Even if there’s a dozen, two dozen or a hundred residents that may be experiencing issues, we take those very seriously,” Messem said.
Those numbers are likely even higher if you ask people living in Miramar’s western neighborhood.
Miramar resident Mark Gardner said it’s difficult to find a neighbor who has not had issues with leaking copper pipes in his Windsor Palms subdivision.
“It’s not my house or one house, it’s the entire community having issues with pipes,” Gardner said. The homes having the problems aren’t even two decades old.
The West Water Treatment Plant began using reverse osmosis to filter the water about a decade ago, officials said. City officials said they tested the water and performed corrosion studies. There is still no official determination as to what is causing the problem.
Gardner told Local 10 that one of his neighbors had to have the entire plumbing in her house redone. Work had to be done on another house because of the pipes where all of the walls had to be opened.
Gardner has had a piping problem in his home so many times, he has already spent more than $10,000 re-plumbing portions of his home.
The Miramar commission and city staff are planning to host a public workshop to explain how the water treatment system works and what is being done to protect properties.
“We want to make sure that we’re using actual data and facts and science so that everyone can be on the same page in terms of what the prospects are,” Messem said.
For homeowners like Gardner, they just want to know how to make it stop.
“It would be nice to have something definitive to say, ‘Hey is this the solution that’s going to help sustain my home for the next 20 years? That’s really the answer I care about most,” he said.
There is no official date set for the public workshop though we are told it will be announced in the coming days. The city’s water director also told Local 10 News that the outside engineering consultant is already in the city reviewing the entire city’s water system and once that report is complete, it will be made public.
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