County lifts burn ban
Hillsboro officials could start pumping water from the Reservoir at any time.
What are they waiting for? Lab results.
Last week, the city sent water samples that they took from both raw and treated water to a laboratory in Ohio. Officials want to be sure that the filtering system adequately removes the blue-green anabaena algae and resulting toxins.
The decision to restart the water plant and take in water from the Reservoir will be made only, after the results come back, according to City Administrator Steve Garrett.
Once the plant starts producing water, Hillsboro could lift its conservation ordinance in a matter of hours, he said. Then residents in Hillsboro and Peabody could begin watering their gardens again.
Lifting the water use ban will be a relief to many local gardeners, but the lifting of another kind of ban on Monday was a relief to local farmers.
After careful deliberation Monday morning, Marion County commissioners lifted the burn ban that was enacted for the entire county earlier in the week. They talked about continuing the ban but decided it would be a hardship for area farmers.
The commission did extend the county's emergency disaster proclamation another 10 days, through July 3.
Farmers want to burn off wheat stubble as soon as the grain is harvested, so they can plant fall row crops.
While the burn ban is off, farmers and others who want to burn stubble should call local fire departments or districts before they begin. They also should have their own water supply, "because we may not be able to back them up," said county commission chairman Howard Collett.
Problems continue in Marion
Although Marion's backup water supply from Luta Creek now is fully implemented and the city has rescinded its emergency water conservation measures, problems continue.
There is a taste and odor problem with Marion water right now, Marion City Administrator David Mayfield said Monday at the city commission meeting. It is not a health issue, he said.
A carbon machine at the Marion water treatment plant broke down. The machine alleviates bad taste and odor in the water by removing impurities. Repairs should be made by Wednesday.
In the meantime, those who find the water too offensive can obtain Brita or other brands of filtering devices at local hardware stores.
According to Marion city officials, Kansas Department of Health and Environment has said Marion can resume using reservoir water, but that the treatment plant needs to be modified somewhat, first.
In fact, KDHE recommends going to ozone treatment of the water before distribution.
"But it's costly," Mayfield said. "Maybe when we do an update of the plant that (ozone) would bring us into compliance forever, probably."
Ozone will kill anything that comes in with the water, Mayfield said — bacteria, toxins, etc. "We need to gather all the information we can get, then make a decision," he told the commission.
The two electrical pumps the city ordered about a week ago were sold, in error, to someone else by a salesman for the manufacturing company.
But the company is building two more for Marion, and they should be here soon. The delay has caused no problem, Mayfield said, since the gas-powered pumps are working all right, though not pumping as much water as the new pumps will.
Harvey Sanders, director of public utilities, said city workers "have done a super job. They put in about 114 hours of overtime (since the water/algae crisis began nearly three weeks ago) to keep the water flowin'."
At Hillsboro
Meanwhile, Hillsboro still awaits lab results that were originally expected back last Friday.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has assisted the city by suggesting levels of algae byproducts that could be regarded as safe.
"There are no national or state standards for these toxins in drinking water at this time," Steve Garrett said in a press release last week. "The values we will be using were compiled by KDHE, and are consistent with guidelines established by the World Health Organization, Australia, and Canada."
Until it is clear whether the new waterworks procedures can achieve those levels, mandatory water conservation will continue in Hillsboro and Peabody.
Mandatory conservation ended Thursday in Marion, as soon as the city was able to upgrade its temporary Luta Creek pumps.
"The water plant is up and running to its full capacity," City Administrator David Mayfield said.
In other news:
— The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers re-opened all swimming beaches last Thursday, and recreational use of the lake is back to normal. However, engineers say that people should avoid coming into contact with visible surface scum.
— The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has reviewed the results of reservoir water samples taken June 12 by Southwest Missouri State University biology professor Russell Rhodes.
Based on the results and observations made at the reservoir, the algae bloom appears to be diminishing, according to Karl Mueldener, director of the state bureau of water. He presented his findings to local official in a letter dated June 18.
According to Rhodes' results, the life expectancy of such an algae bloom is two weeks. Friday, June 20, marks two weeks from the first day Hillsboro stopped taking in water from the reservoir.
For the full story on these results, please see the appropriate article on Page 1.
— KDHE recommends that cities treat their drinking water with a combination of an activated carbon filter and chlorine. According to Mueldener, "this type of treatment approach routinely assures low levels of algal toxins in finished water." Using ozone in water treatment is another method the cities should consider one day, he wrote.
— There are no national or state standards regarding the amount of toxins allowed in drinking water. But according to the KDHE, there are some other guidelines available.
For toxins that come from the "microcystis" algae, a "maximum contaminant level" exists. That MCL varies for two types of exposure: chronic and acute. Chronic exposure takes place over time, building up slowly in the body. The MCL for toxins from the microcystis is one microgram per liter — that means that if an adult were to drink two liters of that water each day for 70 years, he would have less than a one in one million chance of getting cancer (or whatever disease the toxin causes).
Acute exposure makes a person sick immediately.
The acute MCL level for this type of toxin would be 10 micrograms per liter.
According to Rick Brunetti of KDHE, some water that was tested at the entry point into the Hillsboro water plant (not the lake itself) showed 0.002 or 0.003 mg/L of toxin — a negligible amount.
