(June 8, 2017) Linden Avenue resident Gregg Frostrom, who has previously spoken to the town regarding water quality issues at his residence, shared his latest findings and inquired if improvements were forthcoming during the Pocomoke Council meeting on Monday.
“I run two five-micron water filters as water enters my house,” he said.
Frostrom proceeded to exhibit one filter, which was slightly discolored after one month of use, and then produced another filter, which looked spent after three months of use.
“I cant define whether there’s any progress or not, but it doesn’t appear so,” he said. “Maybe you could give me some information on where we’re going.”
City Manager/City Attorney Ernie Crofoot said ongoing efforts to flush water pipes have been relatively ineffective, and based on the results of a recently commissioned report by Hungerford & Terry, a water treatment contractor, Pocomoke needs to pursue a different route involving the water filtering media.
“We had our water treatment plant backwash process checked and it was discovered that the anthracite coal in two of the four tanks was gone,” he said. “A lot of the sand was gone and the filtering media was sort of disappearing.”
The investigation also uncovered half-a-dozen valves, and a meter that was malfunctioning.
“The gist of all this is it appears that for quite a while that the backwash was being done at too high of a pressure,” he said. “Instead of the backwash lifting the debris out of the filtering media and washing that debris out, that backwash was lifting the media out as well.”
When functioning properly, the anthracite coal helps remove iron from the water, but a recent visual inspection revealed a less than ideal scenario, Crofoot said.
“You can see the anthracite as it streams out of the line,” he said. “We opened up a couple of manholes and found it draining out into the sewers.”
Pocomoke has thus far received one price quote for more than $230,000to complete the project, Crofoot said.
“I’m waiting for another estimate from the same company that has a long-term service contract on our water tank,” he said.
After the other quote is received, Crofoot said Pocomoke would need to pursue either short- or medium-range emergency borrowing to finance the work. Prefacing his comments with a knock on wood, Crofoot said the city should be able to handle the challenge.
“In a way, I guess we’ll have to handle that,” he said.
Although in his position under two years, Crofoot said he reviewed water-testing reports for the past five years.
“The reports were somewhat critical of the filtering media at the time, but the water testing at the plant was showing a good reading, so there wasn’t a lot of emphasis being paid,” he said. “None of those reports were as accurate as they could have been, because if you test at a certain stage you’re going to get a good reading, but the day-in and day-out delivery is not going to be good.”
Crofoot also noted that engineers with GMB and consultants with Hungerford and Terry concurred the project should be completed as quickly as possible.
Frostrom expressed his gratitude for the attempts to drill down to the true cause of water quality issues in Pocomoke.
From his perspective, Crofoot said he is hopeful that fixing the malfunctioning valves and water meter, as well as replacing the filtering media, will yield improvements.
“I hate a question I can’t get an answer to,” he said. “I’ve been down a number of roads and this looks like the most promising long-term solution.”
“I run two five-micron water filters as water enters my house,” he said.
Frostrom proceeded to exhibit one filter, which was slightly discolored after one month of use, and then produced another filter, which looked spent after three months of use.
“I cant define whether there’s any progress or not, but it doesn’t appear so,” he said. “Maybe you could give me some information on where we’re going.”
City Manager/City Attorney Ernie Crofoot said ongoing efforts to flush water pipes have been relatively ineffective, and based on the results of a recently commissioned report by Hungerford & Terry, a water treatment contractor, Pocomoke needs to pursue a different route involving the water filtering media.
“We had our water treatment plant backwash process checked and it was discovered that the anthracite coal in two of the four tanks was gone,” he said. “A lot of the sand was gone and the filtering media was sort of disappearing.”
The investigation also uncovered half-a-dozen valves, and a meter that was malfunctioning.
“The gist of all this is it appears that for quite a while that the backwash was being done at too high of a pressure,” he said. “Instead of the backwash lifting the debris out of the filtering media and washing that debris out, that backwash was lifting the media out as well.”
When functioning properly, the anthracite coal helps remove iron from the water, but a recent visual inspection revealed a less than ideal scenario, Crofoot said.
“You can see the anthracite as it streams out of the line,” he said. “We opened up a couple of manholes and found it draining out into the sewers.”
Pocomoke has thus far received one price quote for more than $230,000to complete the project, Crofoot said.
“I’m waiting for another estimate from the same company that has a long-term service contract on our water tank,” he said.
After the other quote is received, Crofoot said Pocomoke would need to pursue either short- or medium-range emergency borrowing to finance the work. Prefacing his comments with a knock on wood, Crofoot said the city should be able to handle the challenge.
“In a way, I guess we’ll have to handle that,” he said.
Although in his position under two years, Crofoot said he reviewed water-testing reports for the past five years.
“The reports were somewhat critical of the filtering media at the time, but the water testing at the plant was showing a good reading, so there wasn’t a lot of emphasis being paid,” he said. “None of those reports were as accurate as they could have been, because if you test at a certain stage you’re going to get a good reading, but the day-in and day-out delivery is not going to be good.”
Crofoot also noted that engineers with GMB and consultants with Hungerford and Terry concurred the project should be completed as quickly as possible.
Frostrom expressed his gratitude for the attempts to drill down to the true cause of water quality issues in Pocomoke.
From his perspective, Crofoot said he is hopeful that fixing the malfunctioning valves and water meter, as well as replacing the filtering media, will yield improvements.
“I hate a question I can’t get an answer to,” he said. “I’ve been down a number of roads and this looks like the most promising long-term solution.”