Nov. 19, 2009: Meriden residents report foul drinking water

[Record-Journal]

By George Moore
Record-Journal staff

MERIDEN — East side resident Stephen Martin and his cat recently took to drinking filtered water after he experienced a sickening odor in his tap water on Saturday.

“It was really bad here,” said Martin, of Lowe Avenue. “It was incredibly foul.”

Residents from certain areas around the city have been dealing with bad-tasting and bad-smelling water after an algae bloom at the city’s main water source, Broad Brook Reservoir, seeped into the system over the weekend.

Water officials are taking short- and long-term steps to address the problem, said Public Utilities Director David Lohman. After detecting the algae bloom Monday, water officials shut down the 1.1-billion gallon reservoir in Cheshire and treated it with copper sulphate, an algae-killing agent. Lohman said the reservoir could remain disconnected until after Thanksgiving to ensure no more algae are coming through.

“We want to be absolutely sure,” he said Wednesday. “We don’t want to take any chances.”

In the meantime, the city water system will be fed by alternate sources, such as Merimere and Hallmere reservoirs.

The city is taking steps to address the complaints — about 30 — the department has received about the water, Lohman said. It has been flushing out water pipes that seem to carry particularly unpleasant water, he said. Routine testing conducted Monday showed that the water is safe to drink, regardless of the taste, Lohman said.

Algae at Broad Brook Reservoir have become more of a problem over the last four years, Lohman said. An algae bloom there in 2006, for instance, caused a similar city-wide problem. But there are plans underway for a comprehensive solution, Lohman said. The department is fast-tracking an upgrade project to the Broad Brook water treatment plant that will more effectively filter out algae, he said.

The treatment plant, on South Meriden Road, is 30 years old and is in desperate need of an upgrade, he said. This week, the city will conclude a 17-week pilot test at Broad Brook to collect data and determine the most effective way to purify the water.

Next month, the department plans to hire engineering firm Black and Veatch to begin design work on the upgrade. The company, which has already been retained for monitoring, will use the data collected during the pilot study to design the upgrade.

The pilot test involved the placement of a trailer at Broad Brook that treated a small amount of raw water to collect data. The trailer tested a water treatment method called dissolved air flotation, in which air bubbles are used to push solids to the water surface, said Project Engineer Domenick Loschiavo, of Black and Veatch. The solids are removed after they collect at the top.

The method is almost the opposite of the current treatment process at the Broad Brook plant, which involves allowing solids to settle to the bottom, Loschiavo said.

Lohman said he believes dissolved air floatation will be more effective in handling the problem because algae tend to float. But the new treatment process will have to deal with another issue associated with the reservoir: manganese. Every fall, manganese, a naturally occurring metal at the lake bottom, gets mixed into the water as a result of temperature changes, Lohman said.

Lohman aims to have the Broad Brook upgrade project put out to bid by the fall of next year. The project could cost anywhere from $6 million to $10 million and would ultimately be covered by water rates, not local taxes. It would likely be financed by a low-interest loan.

Several residents said their water has been almost undrinkable over the weekend. Debbie Drive resident Russell Linsley said his water takes on an unpleasant odor every summer but became really bad this weekend.

“You go to brush your teeth in the morning and you practically gag,” he said.

Linsley said he’s hoping a new treatment system will be added to remove the bad flavor.

Lohman speculated that the algae problem is being caused by runoff from developed areas that contain phosphates and nitrates, typically ingredients in fertilizers.

gmoore@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2275

[rmisbach]

nothing new happens every year the thing that gets me is they are suprised by it? maybe they need a notebook.