ThisWeek CW 9/3/2015
http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/08/31/canal-winchester-officials-hope-better-water-will-flow-from-system-upgrades.html
With upgrades to the city’s water treatment facility nearly finished, Canal Winchester officials are looking ahead to system tweaks that will improve water quality and to ramping up construction of a new Public Works facility.
City construction manager Bill Sims told city council members at the Aug. 17 services and safety committee meeting that the major structural improvements at the water treatment facility were complete, with only electronic system management work left.
“The water plant work is continuing but is mostly complete, the salt barn has been done for a while now and the sludge building is just being finished,” Sims said. “We just need to get the SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system completed and a few other things on the punch list.
“The Public Works facility demolition is just about to happen and I think everybody is pretty excited about the new building getting underway.”
Water reclamation manager Steve Smith said he and technology coordinator Rick Brown have been working to set up and test the SCADA system that “will control the plant.”
City water manager Joe Taylor said that in addition to the SCADA system, a newly installed pressure switch, which was required as part of the system upgrade, will act as an extra backup against system failures in the future that would affect city water services.
“We installed a pressure switch to monitor system distribution, which will act as extra backup against issues in the future,” Taylor said.
“We’ve also installed a new phosphate system, which is now up and going, and we think we should see some improvements to water during the fall flushing and then see a lot more improvement by the spring flushing.”
Several residents have complained about discoloration and odors in their water that city officials believe is related to phosphates. Councilwoman Bobbie Mershon has also experienced water issues and asked why it took eight years to install this system.
“When we looked at the system, they put in a coupon rack. It’s a little metal tab that they put in an iron, plastic and copper pipe and they monitor the amount of the iron that comes off of that,” Taylor said. “They’ll track that data and see how it is coating the pipe, so this test will let us know if the phosphate system is helping.
“I think back in 2007 when we started the new water plant up and running, we didn’t want to rush to judgment as to whether there was still a problem or not, because it takes some years to figure that out and then figure out what works best with your system to correct the problem,” he said.
Public Works Director Matt Peoples said the city has been working on the issue during those eight years, and upgrades to lines, adding a new aeration system and abating lime issues have all addressed specific problems along the way, leading to what he hopes is a final clearing of the water.
“We count on customer complaints to help troubleshoot, but those have been somewhat inconsistent, so over time, we were trying to figure out if there was a line problem versus a system problem,” Peoples said. “So many different things went into this, and we wanted to make sure due diligence was done.
“Never once have we violated EPA standards and all water quality parameters have been met. Of course, if you see stains or red water, you’re not going to want to drink it even if we know it’s safe.”
The fall hydrant flushing will take place September through October, at which point officials believe residents with water issues will begin to see an improvement.