08 -Water/Wastewater Monthly Report

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CITY OF PEQUOT LAKES MONTHLY WATER/WASTEWATER REPORT JULY 2007 Prepared by: Tina.Nolden(Water/WW Manager) WATER PLANT: July 9th, I replaced the diaphragms on both fluoride pumps. I also installed a de-gassing pump head kit on fluoride pump#1. This will help keep it from losing its prime. They're both working very well now. WATER DISTRIBUTION: We had several calls about brown water over the weekend of July 13"'-15th, so I called and had the local radio stations broadcast the information on the night of the 15th and all day on the 10h that we would be flushing hydrants on the 16th. Kurt and I flushed from 5:00 am to about 3:00 pm. We got a whole lot of brown water out of the system that day. Then,the Fire Dept flushed a few hydrants the night of the 18th for their monthly training session. We got a few more calls on the 19th and 20th about brown water. Things seemed to have cleared up for awhile,until the night of the 25th. I had a few more calls about the brown water coming back and it was really bad at 31262 Co. Rd. 112 so I came in that night,around 8:30 pm,and flushed hydrant#2 on the east end of East Grove St. It took a good half-hour for the water to clear up. I grabbed a water sample from the hydrant and the manganese was incredibly high. This is what's causing the brown water. The chlorine was a bit high too,and we believe that's what is causing our problems.All the water leaving the treatment plant is completely normal,clean and clear. The problem is out in the distribution system somewhere. I flushed several hydrants on the 20h,hoping to get rid of the majority of the brown water from the areas we received calls from. Then we talked to Tim Houle about everything and he agreed it would be a good idea to flush all the hydrants again to remove the brown water from the system. Kurt and I flushed from 2:00 am to about 9:30 am on the 27th.This time we didn't get much brown water at all. Things were good until about 9pm on the 31St. More calls of brown water. I also got a call about a broken water line between South Heath and Maish St. I got the water turned off at the curbstop and then called in a locate. I had Pratt's Excavating repair it the next morning. A lot of dirt got in the line and I had to replace the meter inside the home. We are still working on determining why we're having so many issues with brown water. It appears we have some higher chlorine levels coming from somewhere,and that is what is causing the manganese to break loose in the lines. WSN,DPC(Our chemical company) and myself will be meeting Monday morning,the 6th,to troubleshoot everything and try to get a better understanding of why we're having these issues. In the meantime,we have been trying to flush out the brown water when it comes along. We're doing the best we can with the resources that we have. On a lighter note,I would like to request a sewer credit for Earl Hemmerich,the owner of Pequot Terrace. Jeanyne helped me determine how much he was charged on sewer and what his past average usages were. Due to the water-line breaks he's had,there was an additional 729,000 gallons of water that did not go to the City Sewer Main. It all went into the ground,and some into the Trailside Estates storm sewer pond.Jeanyne and I have determined the sewer credit to be$4,039.50 and I would like City Council's approval to credit this amount back to Earl's account.