Our Water Treatment Facilities
We all know having access to
safe, drinkable water is a necessity in sustaining human life. When we think of
drinking water we think “clean”. Don’t we? Shouldn’t the plant our water comes
from be clean and the water from it clean when we consume it? Of course it
should. And “safe”? It has to be “safe” beyond reproach; Right? Heck yes it
does. Do you know where your water comes from? Do you know what is in it? Are
we paying a fair price for our water? In this and other articles I will share
what I know about our local government operated public water supply system and
sewer system. This article is about my first visit to our water treatment
plants.
In Gloucester County , Virginia , some residences and businesses obtain water from
private wells while others obtain this life sustaining element from our public
water supply system. Some of our public schools obtain water from private type
wells while others obtain it from our public water supply system. Many people
with private wells and their children are likely to consume water from our public
supply system at schools, at church, in restaurants, at the hospital, in doctor
offices, at a friend’s house and so on. There are a lot of people who come to Gloucester County to visit family and friends, enjoy our historical
attractions and attend various events. Many of these people also consume water
from our public supply system. With so many people drinking our public water
one would think our local government would do everything necessary to insure
the safety, quality and availability of the water so many of us consume. That
certainly “was not” the impression I was left with after my first visit to our
water treatment facilities.
Our local government obtains
water from two different types of sources and operates two different types of
treatment plants that are located next to each other. Treated water from both
sources are combined together to make up the water provided in our public
supply system. Our first water source is Beaver Dam Reservoir, which began
being used to supply our public water system when our surface water treatment
plant was constructed in 1990. Our second source of water is the Potomac
Aquifer. We have two deep wells near the water treatment plants that pull
brackish (salt containing) water from the aquifer and sends it to our second
type of treatment plant; our reverse osmosis plant that was placed into
operation in 2003.
When I first visited our
water treatment facilities in 2014, I was given a tour by then plant manager
Brent Payne. Mr. Payne has since been promoted to Assistant Director of our
Utility Department; in my opinion, a well deserved promotion. I have visited
several such treatment plants over the years, but I have to say, our plant was
without doubt, the absolute worst of them all. Most plants I have visited appeared
very clean and well maintained, yet I found our surface water treatment plant
to be just the opposite. Mr. Payne showed me various pictures of what areas of
our plant looked like when he first began working there and it was even worse
than what I was seeing as I walked through the plant. It was evident by the
pictures, Mr. Payne and his people had made numerous improvements, but there
was still a lot of work to be done to return our plant to an acceptable, up to
date condition.
One of the larger rooms in
our surface water treatment plant contains numerous large water pipes, valves
and pumps that are used to control the flow of water during treatment processes
and subsequent implementation of disinfected water into the public supply
system. It was evident recent repairs had been made to some of the components
within this room, but there was a lot that still needed attention. There were
trails of water running into floor drains that were coming from small leaks in
various places. There were bolts in valves and other components that were
corroded and needed to be replaced several years before I first saw them. It
looked like no preventive maintenance had occurred for many years. The only
items in the room that looked like they had been painted in the last 20 years
were items worked on by Mr. Payne and his crew. Not long after my first visit,
a leak occurred in this room which sprayed water onto an electrical panel that
was not designed to resist water. A short occurred in the panel, equipment was
damaged and our facility and employees were placed in harms way because our
local government ignored safety requirements that are diligently enforced upon
private citizens and businesses.
I saw rooms inside our
surface water treatment plant that were filled with various items that were piled
and mixed together with zero thought of accountability, organization or value. Most
of the walls throughout our plant looked dingy and as if they had not been
painted for many years. The lighting was poor and ventilation seemed inadequate
in most areas as it was very humid with the continuous smell of chlorine in the
air.
I went into another larger
room that is primarily dedicated to storing and adding various chemicals and
compounds used in the surface water treatment processes. Within this room was a
smaller room that is dedicated to adding activated carbon (essentially charcoal
dust) into the water treatment process. The activated carbon is contained in
bags that resemble plastic lined paper grass seed sacks. These bags are periodically
dumped by hand into a hopper by our employees. When they dump the bags, black
dust fills the air unless there is an adequate exhaust and filter system to
collect it as it comes out of the bag. No such system existed at the time of my
first visit. The walls and everything else in the room were black from years of
carbon dust buildup. When asked, Mr. Payne said he could not guarantee every
employee utilized dusts masks, eye protection or other safety devices every
time carbon was dumped into the hopper.
Activated Carbon is
relatively safe to use, but prolonged exposure to carbon dust has been found to
cause pulmonary disorders. For this reason OSHA has established airborne
exposure limits and is the reason I wasted no time in bringing my concerns
about potential health risks to the attention of our BOS and County
administration. A rudimentary exhaust system has since been installed, but I
have no knowledge of its make up or effectiveness.
After visiting our surface
water treatment plant we headed to the reverse osmosis plant. This newer plant
appeared, at first glance, to be in much better shape than our surface water
plant. Mr. Payne explained about the water for this plant coming from two
nearby wells that tap into the Potomac Aquifer. He also explained that one of
the wells is not used as much as the other because it was positioned in a place
containing high iron content. He further explained that iron greatly shortens
the life of the plant’s expensive filters. The only way to correct this problem
is to drill at another location, verify the water quality and then construct
the well pump house. It looks like someone previously skipped the “verify the
water quality” step. I wonder how much that screw up will eventually cost us.
Residents, businesses and
others, who obtain water for human consumption from private wells, are
responsible for monitoring the safety and quality of water drawn from “their”
wells. Samples of private well water can be tested by our local, state
government run, Health Department or by private labs like Reed and Associates
in Newport News . Our local government is primarily responsible for
monitoring the public system water, but the Health Department plays an
“oversight” role in the monitoring process. Our public school system is
responsible for monitoring water drawn from wells at our schools that are not
connected to our public supply system. The Health Department also plays an
oversight role in this monitoring process. Considering instances like Flint
Michigan ; in which local and state government monitors hid
substandard test results, coupled with some of the things I have seen and learned
about our public water system; I am not convinced our local government has always
done the job we have paid or elected them to do.
I will share more of what I
have learned about the quality of our public water in later articles. Before I
close I want to share this: So far, the picture I have painted of our public
water and sewer department is fairly negative. I guess it appears that way
because there have been so many years of neglect. In all fairness to the people
currently leading our Utilities Department, I have to say they are dedicated, knowledgeable
and capable employees. They did not create the mess I am sharing with you in
these articles; in fact, they have made some improvements. Our Utilities
Department could use more support from our Board of Supervisors, but Utilities
and the PUAC could do a much better job of publicly providing our BOS and us
with an accurate, nonpolitical and complete picture of the condition and
capabilities of our water and sewer infrastructure. More on that later.
Feel free to share this article
at your discretion.
Kenneth E. Hogge, Sr.