Moulton residents may be relieved to hear efforts are being taken to address a long-term solution for an “earthy” taste reoccurring in city tap water this winter. 

According to Moulton Water Superintendent Jay Johnson—who has received numerous complaints of bad-tasting water—algal blooms in the Sinking Creek Reservoir are responsible for the unpleasant odor and taste. 

“Rest assured, there are no safety concerns related to these taste and odor events,” Johnson said. “The water is safe to drink.”

City officials have announced steps being taken to address the issues, including the initiation of a water quality monitoring program to ensure federal and state water quality standards are always met.

In the meantime, Johnson said there are additional steps water customers may take to reduce the earthy taste and smell. He says refrigerating tap water in a pitcher overnight or heating tap water should help. 

Addressing algal blooms is not a new challenge for Johnson and the Moulton Water Department. Johnson said the taste and odor impacts were expected to occur this year after rising temperatures and heavier rainfalls increased the chances of algal blooms producing the organic compounds, geosmin and 2-Methylisoborneal (MIB).

Geosmin and MIB are responsible for the musty flavor and scent, but otherwise pose no threats and are non-toxic to humans. Geosmin has also been cited as a source for pungent earthy flavors in apple juice, beets, fish and wine.

“While every attempt will be made to lessen taste and odor issues using water treatment processes, there are limits to what water providers can do to eliminate the issue at this time,” Johnson added. He said the city has contracted a civil and environmental engineering consultant firm to determine the best long-term solution for the problem.

“Moulton is studying and testing a variety of treatment strategies,” he said. “Moulton is working to collect water quality and soil samples from Sinking River Reservoir, as well as water temperature and algal population measurements in the water reservoir. Moulton is moving forward with a preliminary engineering report to assist in their evaluation of the additional treatment technologies, which will include an enhanced capability to address this issue.”

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Originally Appeared Here

Long after the Brood X cicadas were gone, those small burrow holes they left behind were still having an impact on the soil. That’s according to a recent study by the Indiana University Department of Geography.

IU researchers said those holes actually help water to infiltrate the soil more easily in natural areas like a forest. Research assistant Ellen Bergan said that can help bring more nutrients down to plants’ roots and prevent runoff — improving the water quality of rivers and lakes nearby.

“If you can have higher infiltration rates into the soil, then less water typically is going to be, you know, just going off the surface,” they said.

READ MORE: Brood X has arrived in Indiana. What now?

But when researchers looked at places where there are more people — like city parks, IU’s campus and the edge of farm fields — they were surprised. Bergan said those soils were just too compacted to have much of an effect.

“So that shows that the signal of human disturbance kind of overrides any sort of the impact that those tunnels could have had,” they said.

Bergan said replacing some of those lawns with native plants and doing less plowing and mowing could improve the soil — and the cicadas would probably like it too.

Contact reporter Rebecca at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.

Indiana Environmental reporting is supported by the Environmental Resilience Institute, an Indiana University Grand Challenge project developing Indiana-specific projections and informed responses to problems of environmental change.

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Originally Appeared Here

City water department employees have finished the first round of flushing Pierre’s water lines.

Project manager Gidget Palmer says in anticipation of the new drinking water plant coming online next year, the City cleaned more than 100 miles of water distribution pipes to remove any material that might have collected in them.

https://media.socastsrm.com/wordpress/wp-content/blogs.dir/2626/files/2021/12/122221-flushing1.mp3

Palmer says the process started in late October and wrapped up mid-December. She says the city will do a secondary flush of the pipes shortly before distribution from the drinking water treatment facility comes online, which is expected to happen by next fall (2022).

The treated water is the result of a 2018 public vote when Pierre residents decided the city should build a drinking water treatment facility. Surface water from the Missouri River will be treated at the new facility and replace the underground aquifer currently used as Pierre’s water source.

Image credit City of Pierre.

Members of Pierre’s City Water Department open an underground water valve as part of the City’s recently completed pipe flushing project. The City maintains more than 100 miles of water main.
Image credit City of Pierre.

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Originally Appeared Here

Michelle Hopkins is a Florida registered professional engineer and is the regulation division director.

By Michelle Hopkins P.E., Regulation Division Director

The Southwest Florida Water Management District (District) uses regulatory programs to better manage stormwater, provide flood protection and protect water resources such as wetlands, rivers, lakes, estuaries and groundwater supplies. Regulation staff at the District evaluate Environmental Resource Permit (ERP), Water Use Permit (WUP) and Well Construction Permit (WCP) applications and compliance information. Regulation Division Director Michelle Hopkins explained the different types of permits the District issues and why they are needed.

Q: Why does the District issue permits?

A: Water is a public resource that belongs to all of us. However, fresh water is not limitless. Excessive water withdrawals can harm the resources. District permitting benefits residents, property owners and businesses by reducing the risk of flooding and protecting water quality and water supplies for current and future generations.

Q: Do I need a District permit? And if so, what type of permit do I need?

A: If you want to withdraw large quantities of water, develop property or construct a well, there’s a good chance you’ll need a District permit.

Water use permits allow the withdrawal of specific quantities of groundwater or surface water for limited periods of time under certain conditions. You need a water use permit if:

• You plan to withdraw more than 100,000 gallons per day.
• The outside diameter of your groundwater well is 6 inches or larger.
• The outside diameter of your withdrawal pipe from a surface water body is 4 inches or larger.
• The total withdrawal capacity of your system is 1 million gallons per day or larger.

Environmental resource permits (ERPs) ensure that a new development properly treats stormwater runoff to remove pollutants, compensates for any losses in floodplain storage, mitigates for any impacts to wetlands and does not increase the rate of stormwater runoff onto neighboring properties. You need an ERP if your construction project:

• Disrupts wetlands
• Encroaches on a floodplain
• Increases, decreases or diverts stormwater runoff
• Contributes to water pollution

Well construction permits are required prior to installation of a well within the District. The permits ensure that wells are constructed by qualified contractors and meet rigid safety and durability standards. Generally, a withdrawal for personal domestic use for an individual home is small enough to fall below the threshold for requiring a water use permit. However, if you are constructing a well, your water well contractor will still need to get a well construction permit.

Q: Where do I get my permit?

A: You can apply for a permit at watermatters.org/permits or by submitting a permit application to your local District service office.

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Originally Appeared Here

Published: 12/22/2021 5:06:41 PM

Modified: 12/22/2021 5:06:26 PM

MONTAGUE — The president of Greenleaf Foods, SPC — also known as Lightlife Foods — released a statement this week to affirm that the company’s pH regulation issues that are the subject of a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been resolved.

The statement from Greenleaf Foods President Dan Curtin comes after the EPA announced its settlement on Monday. The settlement addresses violations of Clean Water Act pretreatment regulations by the soy-based food production facility.

An investigation conducted by the EPA found that Lightlife Foods at 153 Industrial Blvd. discharged low-pH wastewater into the town’s sewer collection system, corroding pipes, killing beneficial microbes and causing odor. The settlement, which includes a $252,000 penalty benefiting the EPA, necessitated usage of a wastewater pretreatment system by Lightlife Foods to help the company stay in line with regulations.

“EPA’s settlement with Lightlife Foods has ensured that wastewater discharges leaving their facility are no longer damaging the town of Montague’s wastewater infrastructure,” Environmental Protection Agency New England Acting Regional Administrator Deb Szaro said in a press release.

Lightlife Foods’ regulatory violation — the improper sewage disposal of acidic cleaners and lactic acid used to soak soybeans — is the company’s latest infraction in Montague. According to the town’s website, Lightlife Foods submitted “multiple monthly reports” greater than 30 days after the due dates from September 2019 to April 2020 and failed to “report violations of oil and grease local limits” in January and February 2020.

Curtin said Lightlife Foods was “very concerned” after receiving word of its violations, noting that the company had been sampling its wastewater pH and “felt confident” in its compliance with regulations. After identifying the issue, he wrote, the company provided an interim solution before completing the installation of a permanent pretreatment system in February.

“We are confident that our new system ensures we are operating the facility in full compliance with environmental laws,” Curtin wrote.

Water Pollution Control Facility Superintendent Chelsey Little previously said Lightlife Foods’ violations were identified by the EPA after the Water Pollution Control Facility reported processing issues. She hesitated to isolate Lightlife Foods as the sole cause for the issues, but said the EPA’s investigation found the company’s wastewater pH levels to be at least a significant factor. Rather than having a pH close to 7 — which is the level of pure water — the pH was radically toward the acidic end of the scale, closer to the pH of lemon juice or gastric acid.

“This isn’t like a 6 pH,” Little explained. “It was like a 1 or a 2.”

Curtin added that, while the company is “deeply sorry for any concerns this has raised among community members,” he isn’t aware of any structural damage caused to Montague’s wastewater infrastructure.

“We are relieved that to our knowledge,” he wrote, “no damage was caused by the instances of low-pH wastewater discharge from the facility.”

The lasting impact on the town’s wastewater infrastructure remains unclear, however. Montague Department of Public Works Superintendent Tom Bergeron, when reached earlier this week, said his department is in conversations with the Wright-Pierce engineering firm about spring infrastructure projects, with a condition that assessment and possible repairs to the town’s sewer system have the potential to be included.

Curtin also said he believes Lightlife Foods’ use of a “new and effective water treatment solution reflects (the) company’s commitment to protecting our environment.”

“Our company is strongly committed to complying with all local, state and federal environmental laws,” he wrote, “and to protecting the local environments in which we operate.”

Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or [email protected].

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Originally Appeared Here

Growing up in Isle of Wight County in Virginia’s tidewater region, Longwood chemistry major Kaleigh Beale ’22 was puzzled about why many of her elementary school friends had brown stains on their teeth. She asked her parents what was causing this problem and why her teeth were not stained.

Most of the county’s residents get their drinking water from a well and naturally occurring high fluoride levels in groundwater can cause mild to severe tooth discoloration during adolescence, when teeth are still forming.

“We’re mostly on well systems in Isle of Wight County,” Beale said. “But the difference was we filtered our water so my teeth didn’t get brown. Not everyone has the resources to filter their water, but my parents did.”

Fast forward to her senior year at Longwood and Beale is now using her senior thesis project to investigate the fluoride content in the county’s water and propose possible solutions that will help residents mitigate high levels in the drinking water. Children and the elderly are most at risk for health complications caused by regularly drinking water with high fluoride levels and the county has issued drinking water advisories.

“I talked with a lot of community members and they were all adamant that there’s a problem with our water and it needs to be solved,” Beale said. “It’s expensive to have a Brita filter to filter your water all of the time. My goal is to give them a cost-effective way to detect and remove the fluoride from their water.”

Working with Dr. Sarah Porter, professor of analytical chemistry who is overseeing the thesis project, Beale spent about five to six hours a week this semester conducting lab research. They purchased a $400 device that enables them to use the standard method used in a professional lab that does water testing.

According to the World Health Organization, 1.5 parts per million (ppm) is an acceptable limit for fluoride levels in drinking water. Long-term consumption of drinking water that has fluoride levels of 4.0 ppm and above can cause skeletal fluorosis, a chronic bone and joint disease that causes bones to become weaker and more brittle.

Beale, a chemistry major with a minor in biology, gathered five water samples from locations in Isle of Wight County, including samples from her own family members’ homes. What she learned was unsettling, although based on her experiences not that surprising.

She found that the fluoride levels in all of her samples were well above 1.5 ppm and two samples were above 4.0 ppm–including her grandmother’s water, which registered a 5.3 ppm fluoride level. For comparison, Beale also tested Farmville tap water, which is treated by the town water plant. The Farmville sample was 0.3 ppm fluoride.

“People are just drinking it,” Beale said, adding that her grandmother had not been filtering her water but that she will be getting a water filter soon.

Ultimately, she hopes to produce a brochure or informational product to be distributed to members of the community that explains ways they can detect and remove fluoride from their water. She also plans to share a report of her findings regarding the fluoride levels of her samples with county leaders.

Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral and some communities have larger concentrations than others. Agricultural runoff in rural areas can also contribute to higher levels of fluoride in groundwater.

This fall Beale experimented with using dyes that change the color of fluorinated water based on different concentrations of the mineral. For example, if a dye was added to water with a low concentration of fluoride it would be pink but at higher concentrations, it would turn orange.

“Those are some of the cheaper and easier solutions we are investigating,” she said

Beale also bought a water test kit from Amazon and found that its results weren’t accurate as far as detecting fluoride levels. She noted that this is relevant since this is a method that is easily accessible to the public, although not necessarily useful.

In the spring semester, Beale plans to investigate and study cost-effective fluoride removal methods, such as filtering with charcoal and aluminum powder.

The senior thesis program is voluntary and students are required to develop their project and pitch it to the senior thesis committee. This spring Beale will write her thesis and present it at Longwood, in addition to submitting it for presentation at professional conferences.

“She’s doing a great job and it’s because she is doing something that she is interested in,” Porter said. “When you do chemistry research I think most people think it’s just spending time in the lab but there’s a lot more to it than that for senior thesis students. There’s a significant writing component as well.”

Beale, who will graduate in May 2022 with honors, plans to attend medical school. She is a member of the Cormier Honors College for Citizen Scholars and also part of Longwood’s LIFE STEM program.

She said one of the reasons she decided to do a senior thesis was to get experience doing intensive research as she looks toward medical school and narrowing down what type of job she eventually wants to pursue. She said so far she has learned that she does not want to do medical research or work primarily in a lab setting.

“While I’m passionate about my topic, I decided I want more of a dynamic working environment,” she said. “However, I do like the problem-solving aspect of research and overall my passion for medicine drove me to try to help my community using what I’m learning at Longwood.”

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Originally Appeared Here