By DAVE SCHULTZ
Bluffton Utilities crews will be flushing fire hydrants this week in an effort to clear water lines from scaling, something that is apparently related to moving the city’s water treatment plant from the north side of the city to its south side.
The city has fielded 17 complaints about water quality, says Jon Oman, the city’s operations manager, who said some of those problems have been resolved. Others, however, have expressed concerns about water quality — even as the city has put its sparkling water filtration plant into service.
“The plant water is pristine,” said Mark Sullivan, the CEO of Midwestern Engineers, who designed the plant and the expanded water system it serves. Nevertheless, he said, “it’s hard to tell the public to have patience.”
Two things may be in play with the water system. First, the old plant used lime to treat the water while the new plant uses salt. Second, water that had been flowing south into the city from the old plant on Compromise Lane is now flowing north from the new plant at the city’s southern edge. Anything that had been built up in the pipes is now being dislodged with the change in direction.
Sullivan said the city should flush its water lines again, opening up the hydrants as much as possible and even as long as possible to clear the pipes.
Dave Hendricks, Bluffton’s superintendent of water distribution, said that effort will begin Monday and Tuesday, but he’s leery of wasting too much water in the process.”If we flush each hydrant for an hour, we could lose up to 100,000 gallons,” he said.
There was a proposal during last Tuesday’s Board of Public Works and Safety meeting that the flushing could be done at night, but Hendricks didn’t like that idea. “If we do it at night, it’ll attract the kids,” he said. The water pressure, he said, “could blow them across the street.”
With school in session, it’s less likely that children will be around during the day.
daves@news-banner.com
