Water authority crews flush lines to remove foul water
Posted on Thursday, August 7, 2008
Some Washington Water Authority customers may have noticed dirty-looking water coming from their faucets in recent days, but the general manager of the authority says the water is safe to drink.
Though the water is safe, crews have been working this week to flush lines in the system "because people don't like the aesthetic look of it," said Josh Moore, general manager of the Washington Water Authority.
He said the authority has received 50 to 75 calls since Sunday about the water's color, but that not all customers are experiencing it. There are 5, 300 customers in the authority's service area.
Crews flushed the system Wednesday in southern areas of Washington County, including at Strickler and along Devil's Den Road. They were in the Tontitown and Farmington areas on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday flushing the lines.
"We're trying to make it better for our customers," Moore said.
The water authority gets its water from the Benton-Washington Regional Public Water Authority, commonly referred to as Two-Ton, which supplies water from Beaver Lake to several small cities and rural areas in both counties.
Scott Borman, general manager of the Two-Ton plant, said the dirty-looking water was caused by manganese, which occurs naturally. He said that unfortunately the Washington Water Authority service area being at the end of the line means it has not cleared up there yet.
"It poses absolutely no health threat," Borman said.
Manganese is on the secondary contaminant list in terms of Environmental Protection Agency regulation, he said.
"Secondary standards all deal with strictly aesthetic values," he said, such as smell, taste and color.
He said the problem causing the dirty-looking water began about a week and a half ago when the thermocline, which is where the lake stratifies (cool, dense low-oxygen water meets the warmer water from the top of the lake ), shifted about four to five feet and went above the intake level - which is where Two-Ton pulls water from the lake.
This produced higher manganese levels.
"Because of the design of the existing facility, it's real hard for us to take that out of it," Borman said.
The plant averages 0. 04 parts per million of manganese, and it went up to more than 0. 6 parts per million last week.
The treated water turned brown as it moved through the system due to chemical changes that took place, Borman said.
Since the plant switched intake levels last week, he said, the manganese level is back down to 0. 04 parts per million.
Borman said the more water pumped in the south end of the system - which includes the Washington Water Authority area, Prairie Grove, Lincoln and Westville, Okla. - the quicker the dirty-looking water will be out of the lines.
He said Two-Ton actually set a record Tuesday for the most gallons pumped to the south end in one day: 4. 5 million gallons.
He said some people have reported the dirty-looking water turning white laundry loads brown.
He advises people to hang up their white clothes that have been affected by the manganese instead of drying them in dryers.
Once the water is cleared up in an area, he said, people should use a laundry additive that oxidizes instead of detergents.
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