District gets down to dirty work of cleaning up water
Staff writer
Improvements are coming to Rural Water District No. 1.
The district was in hot water earlier this month after Tampa and Ramona residents reported dark-brown water coming from their taps.
Last week, water board chairman Donald Mueller and operator Autumn Chisholm were joined by staff members from the Kansas Rural Water Association to induce flushing of large pipelines in hope of removing discolored water from the system.
“It went well,” Chisholm said Tuesday. “We started about 11:30 [p.m.] and finished about 2:15 [a.m.]”
Association employees Greg Metz and Daryn Martin are working with the district to get the system flushed more frequently and forcefully by adding more valves and flush points.
Association general manager Elmer Ronnebaum said previous flushing had not been strong enough to properly clean out sediment.
“The issue in the past has been that the district has not been flushing at a high enough rate to create the necessary scouring effect to move the discolored water,” he said. “People will go to the end of the line and crack a valve open and let water dribble. That’s not flushing. That’s just wasting water.”
It takes a flow rate of 230 gallons per minute to properly scour sediment off a six-inch pipe, Ronnebaum said.
He said the district’s poor flush rate had been caused by not having many flush points and not making the trips necessary to flush from the best areas.
Chisholm said there had been discolored water “in another area” of District No. 1 recently, but she declined to give specifics.
“I’m scared to answer anything, because whatever I say, it’s wrong, and you guys get it in the paper, and the whole thing blows up,” she said.
Flushing last week took place on a main pipeline west of the Tampa exit from K-15.
Ronnebaum said Mueller was committed to improving the water system.
“We have pretty high confidence that the district is going to be more forthright in looking for some alternatives to these problems,” he said. “I think in the immediate future, we can get the water to at least be more acceptable.”
The district moved July 14 to hire an engineer to evaluate its system. The district will decide after the evaluation whether to construct a treatment plant, drill a new well, or take a different direction.
“It would be more economical to look for a different well source,” Ronnebaum said, citing high costs associated with constructing and maintaining a treatment plant.
Chisholm said the engineer’s evaluation would take time.
“There’s a lot that has to happen before they come out,” she said. “This is not an overnight fix. And it’s not that we haven’t been working on it for a long time. We have. But nobody thinks we have.”
Rural water boards are elected by district members at annual meetings required by state bylaws.
These meetings are typically poorly attended, Ronnebaum said.
Some districts have tried to lure members to their annual meetings with guest speakers, live entertainment, and home-cooked food.
“I know of… a couple in southeast Kansas who provide a supper to encourage people to attend,” Ronnebaum said. “Generally, they have from 50 to 100-plus of the members.”