By DAVE SCHULTZ
Chris Bryant, the owner and brewer at the Parlor City Brewing Co., 212 W. Market St., brought his concerns about the city’s drinking water to the Bluffton Board of Public Works and Safety Tuesday.
Last September, about the time that the city’s new water filtration plant started to go online, Bryant said he noticed a change in the water that came into his business. He particularly cited a change in the water’s alkalinity.
His business is using a reverse osmosis filtering system. For each gallon of water produced by the RO system, he said, four gallons goes down the drain. It also takes more time to treat the water and maintain equipment.
“Beer is 90 percent water, so it’s a vital ingredient,” Bryant said, to everyone’s understanding.
Bryant wanted to know if the city could reduce his water bill and if he could get a refund on his $2,000 deposit the city required when it connected his business’s water lines. Board of Works members were reluctant to grant his request in total, but they did reduce the amount of the deposit to $750.
They also agreed to give him credit for two weeks’ water service on his next water bill.
The quality of water had been discussed in the two previous Board of Works meeting. Mark Sullivan of Midwestern Engineers, the company that designed the plant, said the city should flush some water mains. Scaling that had formed when water moved from north to south is now moving south to north with the relocation of the filtration plant, Sullivan said.
That flushing has been done, said Jon Oman, the city’s operations manager.
Another change has been the way the water is treated. The old filtration plant on Compromise Lane used lime, while the new one uses salt.
Whicker noted that he would be gone next week but wanted to see a full discussion on the matter in two weeks. “This has far-reaching effects, beyond Parlor City Brewing,” the mayor said.
daves@news-banner.com
