Thursday, October 29, 2015
YOUNGSTOWN
An engineering firm is studying the possibility of installing aeration equipment in two underground reservoirs belonging to the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District to reduce the risk of elevated trihalomethane levels in the water supply.
The reservoirs, each with a 30 million gallon capacity, are at the district’s Mineral Ridge treatment plant and on Youngstown’s West Side.
The study is being done for MVSD by Utility Service Group of Atlanta, Ga., said Anthony P. Vigorito, the district’s chief engineer.
No cost estimates for aeration equipment, which would cause the THMs to evaporate, are available yet, he said.
Youngstown was forced to mail letters to all 54,000 of its water customers last month, informing them that an Aug. 4 water test showed trihalomethanes at 89 parts per billion, which exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limit of 80 parts per billion.
Trihalomethanes are chemical byproducts of the reaction of chlorine with organic matter naturally found in water. Chlorine is used to remove bacteria from water during the treatment process.
The letter told customers that some people who drink water with elevated THMs “over many years may experience problems with their liver, kidneys or central nervous system and may have an increased risk of getting cancer.”
Due to changes in MVSD’s treatment process, Vigorito said THMs are now in the 30 parts per billion range in the district’s water.
Vigorito said last month that the district had speeded up the mixing of chlorine and ammonia with the organic matter in the water to lower THM levels.
He also said the district was buying $39,700 worth of equipment to take water samples and provide THM reports 30 minutes later, instead of waiting the usual two weeks for lab test results.
“We’ve asked our member cities [Niles and Youngstown] to look at flushing the lines and the possibility of cutting off some of those dead areas that were poorly planned, where water sits stagnant, because that’s what really raises up the trihalomethanes,” said Rufus G. Hudson, MVSD board president.
In a recent interview, Joseph Warino, Canfield city manager and a former Mahoning County sanitary engineer, suggested that the risk of elevated THMs might be reduced by installing mixing equipment in the West Side reservoir.
“When the chlorine’s allowed to just sit there and intermingle with the organic material, it creates the trihalomethanes,” Warino explained.
“The solution to that problem is to have less storage capacity or to put in mixers” to keep the water “continually moving,” he said.
“It’s good to have this excess capacity available to you in the event we have a disaster that takes out your system,” he said of the West Side reservoir. “But, on the other hand, if you have too much of it, and it’s allowed to sit there, you’re going to get this reaction,” that forms THMs, Warino observed.
The city of Canfield has not had elevated THMs because it has only a three-day water storage capacity, Warino said. “Our water is continuously moving,” he added.
Canfield gets MVSD-treated water directly from Youngstown’s Webb Road pump station in Austintown.