Thursday, September 07, 2006

A Watershed Moment

...
I was wondering why the water had been tasting so different (i.e. BAD!), especially at work.

A batch of water that doesn't smell or taste very good has been working its way through the city's water lines this week.

Officials say the water is safe to drink and expect most of it to work its way out of the Springfield system today.

[snip]

…the problem was caused by two factors. Because of temperature changes, the level of oxygen in the lower levels of the lake, where CWLP was drawing its water began to drop.

On Monday, CWLP started drawing closer to the surface, where there is more oxygen.

Another problem involved a chemical CWLP adds to the water called powdered activated carbon. The chemical is added to take care of odors, but on Monday, a pump at CWLP was down for about a half hour.
Maybe they should warn us next time this is going to happen BEFORE the water suddenly takes on a different taste. Or maybe they did and I missed it. I and some of my coworkers had quit drinking the tap water at work it was so bad. I thought maybe there was something going on in our building.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I heard the report about the water on the radio this morning, and thought it was odd that I hadn't noticed the difference yet. Especially since I live on the east side, just a couple miles from the plant. But, then I realized, the water probably goes all the way out to the water tower way out west before it comes back east. Anyway, I'll probably notice it tonight.

I took the girls on a tour of the water plant. It is an awesomely fascinating operation. I wish they still gave the public tours. But, I think those days are gone forever. (Same for the electric plant.) I recall being vaguely disturbed, though, at the sensitive information freely given out by the tourguides about how our water is processed. And thinking, someone could do some major damage with this information in the wrong hands. And that was years before 9/11.