CEAC-2018-12-December

NEWS
Taco Names Three New Regional Sales
Vice Presidents
John Morgan
Taco Comfort Solutions has named John Morgan, Area VP,
Western US. His responsibilities include managing all sales
revenue activities for the Commercial and Wholesale channels.
With 25+ years of experience including sales, operations and
marketing, Morgan brings significant background well suited
for growth at Taco. His experience includes positions as senior
vice president at a Fortune 500 medical device company.
He was also the West business unit leader for Scotland-based
AGGREKO, PLC — a global leader in providing temporary
power generation and temperature control. He also served
for four years as president of California-based Veritas Medical
— a medical device distributor and sales organization.
Morgan holds a BS in Business Administration from the University
of CT and has done post-graduate work at the Harvard
Business School and at IMD Business School in Lausanne,
Switzerland.
Taco Comfort Solutions has promoted Ric Turmel to Area VP,
Central US. His responsibilities include managing all sales revenue
activities for the Commercial and Wholesale channels.
Previously at Taco, Turmel lead the business development
and commercial sales teams and the iWorX controls group.
Turmel holds LEED AP certification from the USGBC. He has
an engineering degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University, a BA degree in business administration from Post
University, and also studied at the University of Maine.
Taco Comfort Solutions also promoted Geoffry Bent to
Southeast Region Manager, Commercial Products. Previously,
he was a regional sales manager for Taco’s building automation
system product group. Before his new position at Taco,
Bent was construction sales manager for Johnson Controls,
among other roles.
In the US Navy, Bent served as a seamanship and navigation
instructor. Bent is a graduate of the US Naval Academy.
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Members
Sioux Falls Manages Contaminated
Water From Toxic Foam
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Sioux Falls officials are grappling
with well shutdowns as the extent of the city’s water contamination
from decades of firefighting foam use remains
unclear.
Sioux Falls currently has 19 municipal wells sitting dormant
in the aftermath of innumerable gallons of toxic firefighting
foam that contaminated the grounds of the city airport nearly
50 years ago, the Rapid City Journal reported. Chemicals
linked to cancer and other health issues were found to have
contaminated 15 municipal wells, including 10 that have
concentrations above what the Environmental Protection
Agency deems safe.
About 28 percent of the city’s water production from the Big
Sioux aquifer is shut down.
The South Dakota Air National Guard and the Sioux Falls
Fire Department both used the toxic firefighting foam for
many years near the airport, which led to the contamination
of the city’s drinking water. But the scope of the issue is still
unknown.
“We really haven’t determined the extent of release yet,”
said Capt. Jessica Bak, a public affairs officer with the Air
Guard at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport.
In 2013, the city’s water purification plant found chemicals
from firefighting foam, known as per and polyfluoroalkyl
substances (PFAS), at levels below the EPA’s health advisory
level. The level of exposure beneath the EPA’s threshold
means there aren’t expected adverse health risks.
The city responded to the findings by testing all municipal
wells to identify the source and shutting down every well
where the chemicals were found.
City engineer Tim Stefanich, who oversees the water system,
acknowledged that “there was a little bit of time between”
finding the contamination, determining its source and deciding
to shut off wells. But he said that there was minimal fear
of an immediate health risk with the low levels of exposure.
The city tested for PFAS again in 2014 as part of an EPA-mandated
water sampling program, but didn’t detect any of the
chemicals. The city tested again in 2016, when some low
levels were found.
The city shut off more wells, leading to the 19 wells offline
today. Water leaving the city’s purification plant is now
sampled monthly, and no water samples have contained the
chemicals since 2016.
Stefanich and Trent Lubbers, the city’s utilities operation
administrator, believe the contaminated water situation is
under control.
The city has been purchasing water from the Lewis and Clark
Regional Water system, a nonprofit, wholesale provider of
treated water. But Sioux Falls will likely need a more sustainable
option.
“They have the short term kind of covered,” said Mark
Meyer, drinking water program administrator for the state’s
Department of Environment & Natural Resources. “But as we
march into the future, having 28 percent of their well capacity
offline, the future is going to come sooner than later.”
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48 | Chief Engineer
Volume 83 · Number 12 | 49