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Wednesday, February 16, 2000

Plant accident affects water

SAFETY FIRST: Residents cautioned to boil drinking water for first time.

(Photo: At the county's request, cities throughout the county flushed their fire hydrants to hasten the contaminated water's exit from the system. News Herald Photo: Dana Miserez.)

KENDALL MIDDLEMAS The News Herald

Bay County residents connected to public water systems were cautioned Tuesday to boil drinking water until at least 6 a.m. today, after an accident at the Bay County water treatment plant caused a spike in turbidity levels.

Only water used for drinking or cooking had to be boiled.

It was the county's first "boil-water" notice in memory.

The alert is purely precautionary, said Travis Windham, the county's public utilities director. High turbidity merely increases the possibility for bacterial contamination.

"Even if it does have high turbidity, that's not an indication that there's bacteria in it," he said.

But the county won't know that for sure until tests for bacteria come back from the laboratory. It takes 24 hours to get results. Samples went to the lab early Tuesday afternoon.

Residents should consult local radio and television stations for news on when the water has been declared safe for consumption.

To hasten the return to normal, the county asked cities to flush fire hydrants and infused the water system with chlorine.

"Everything's pretty much on track," Windham said. "But you cannot help but be a little cautious."

By late Tuesday afternoon, turbidity levels had begun to decrease considerably.

"The quality of the water leaving the plant is getting better," said Robert Olson, the county's water treatment superintendent.

(Photo: From left to right, Bay County Water Treatment Superintendent Robert Olson, Chief Plant Operator Ken Izumi and Jennifer Keck of the engineering firm Baskerville-Donovan Inc. review drawings of the county water treatment system, in an effort to determine the cause of high turbidity levels on Tuesday. News Herald Photo: Mike Clements.)

The utilities department planned to take samples every half-hour at the plant and every four hours from various points around the distribution system.

Tuesday morning, the county shut the water treatment system down to perform routine maintenance. When the plant was brought back on line early Tuesday afternoon, treatment plant employees noticed abnormal color and high turbidity.

Tests revealed that the turbidity levels exceeded state quality standards for drinking water - and at one point were nearly twice the acceptable levels.

Bay County utilities officials believe the problem occurred when the contents of an unused pipeline backed up and entered the water treatment system.

"That's a preliminary assessment but we can't ascertain that that's the one-and-only," Windham said. "That's why we've got the engineers back up here to take a look and see what else could have contributed."

When employees examined the contents of the pipe, they discovered mud, tree roots, branches and weeds.

The pipeline is a component in a new pump system that went on line last month. The pipeline eventually will connect those pipes with a new storage tank that the county plans to build later this year.

Phoenix Construction Services Inc. was the contractor on the pump system and the pipe.

County staff speculated Tuesday that the pipeline was not properly flushed when it was completed eight months ago. Flushing the pipeline would have been the responsibility of the contractor, Windham said.

Even though the pipeline is not in use, it should have been flushed and ready for immediate use once the new pump system went on line.

"That would have been an expectation," Windham said.

The pipeline could hold only 8,000 to 10,000 gallons - a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of gallons that the plant delivers throughout the county each day. -SNIP-

) The News Herald Copyright Notice a href="http://www.newsherald.com/LOCAL.HTM">http://www.newsherald.com/LOCAL.HTM

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 16, 2000

Answers

Dee, your headline says "(PA)" implying this problem was in Pennsylvania. However, there is no "Bay county" in PA, rather the story seems to come from Florida.

Cheers, --Andre in southcentral Pennsylvania

-- Andre Weltman (72320.1066@compuserve.com), February 16, 2000.

Thank you for catching that for me Andre! =)

Yes, I made a typo...it's for Panama City, Florida

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 16, 2000.