Updated at 4:50 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016 — DEQ responds to City water issues; currently in compliance
Updated on Thursday, Sept. 8 at 1:30 p.m. — City of Guthrie releases second statement on drinking water
Original Story
The City of Guthrie is responding to their ongoing water issues following a television report stating blue-green algae could be the blame for the taste and odor of the city’s water.
Last week, the City released a statement stating the lake turnover in Guthrie Lake brought high levels of manganese to the level in which the City collects water for treatment. Lake turnover is the seasonal movement of water within a lake due to temperature changes between the different layers.
Related article: City releases statement on poor water quality
“As soon as (City) staff detected the additional amounts of manganese, the process was initiated to switch the primary source of water from Guthrie Lake to Liberty Lake. The average time period to switch from one lake to the other is typically one week. Staff was able to shorten this process to a couple of days in order to eliminate as much manganese as possible from coming into the water treatment plant,” the statement said.
Oklahoma City television station KOKH (Fox 25) went to a Guthrie home last week and collected water samples from a residents kitchen sink and took it to Red Rock Environmental lab in Oklahoma City for testing.
According to their report, President of Red Rock Environmental lab, Dr. Ming Yu says the taste and odor could be from blue-green algae. The article states blue-green algae occurs in lakes that are shallow and high levels can be toxic. It can cause liver inflammation, nausea and diarrhea.
Guthrie City Manager told Guthrie News Page on Wednesday he wish he had more information from the lab report.
“They had not given us any information regarding where they sampled, how they sampled and what techniques they used. From the information that I have right now there is no accreditation on the actual results of their tests,” Johnson said inside the Guthrie Water Treatment Plant.
“This is why they said, at this point and time, what could possibly be the problem. As they did their test, they found no manganese, which we originally reported that we had high. We have data that supports everything that we stated to the public.”
The Fox 25 article states, Dr. Yu found manganese levels tested in this water were well below
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards. View the Fox 25 article here.
Johnson says the manganese level dropped once they switched their water supply to Liberty Lake.
Johnson continued, “If they don’t find the manganese they have to have another culprit for what people consider to still have as taste and odor problems, which we agree with.”
The city manager did say they had not tested for blue-green algae until after the television report.
“We don’t test for it, but we have tested for it as of today. We should see those results next week.”
City officials continue to say there’s nothing that they have seen from any their testing and their submissions to DEQ that shows the water is a health hazard to anyone in the public.
Blooming season for algae
Water Treatment Plant Supervisor Lee Pearce says, “September is your blooming season for algae. It can go on for months. It depends on your lakes and the dying rate of the algae.”
Pearce says they add chlorine oxide to the raw water system before it enters the treatment plant to help kill algae. It helps with taste of odor and manganese.
“Whenever you kill algae it breaks the cells open. In the cells is when you get your taste and odor, which you can’t treat, you can’t remove unless you feed powdered activated carbon (PAC). Which we are working on that too,” Pearce said.
“Once it’s in the water, it’s in the water.”
Pearce states this issue happens every year.
“This year has been exceptionally large with manganese turn over in the lake and the algae bloom has been exceptional.”
Moving Forward
Johnson said the City will continue to have meetings and come up with alternative solutions for how they treat and distribute and be able to identify and catch and release any waters that they believe in the future that may have bad taste and odor.
Johnson says the City tries to control all of their samples so they know when they are taking them, what day and what time they are taking them and all of the different surrounding impacts that may go into taking that sample before sending it off to the lab.
“We will continue to do all of our testing at both raw water sites and our distribution system from accredited laboratories,” Johnson said.
So how long will it take for this issue to be resolved?
“As of today (Wednesday), we are not receiving the same type of odors that we have been receiving on our raw water intake,” Johnson said. “It probably will take another seven days to get it flushed out of our system, but more importantly we are seeing what we can do with our existing treatment system to get those removed before they actually go in our distribution system.”
The city manager added aging water pipes is not helping the cause.
“I have a theory that when we go out and do our flushing of our lines, all of the sediments that are built up in our 100-year-old pipes get disturbed so you also get a taste in odor based on that. It’s a double problem.”
Tours of the Water Treatment Plant are available every Thursday between 2-3 pm and can be reserved by calling (405) 282-0532.
I have not seen a positive result in the water in over 2 years. We were told then the water was recirculated from old lines instead of being flushed. Since then it has carried an odor and tastes horrible. The odor is in your clothes, taste it in your food, and you have to wear it after a shower. The city water is to expensive ($126 monthly) to continue buying bottled water and replacement filters.Quit kidding us and fix the problem or get someone in there who is willing to do the job right!