Dateline: August 2, 2001

Greenbelt water filter plant to be updated  

Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Water from Greenbelt Lake will taste different in the coming years, but no one can say exactly what it will taste like.

The change will come when Greenbelt Municipal & Industrial Water Authority finishes a $2.5 million project to improve its filter plant north of Clarendon in order to come into compliance with more stringent standards.

“Right now we’re in compliance,” said general manager Bobbie Kidd, “but come January 1, we won’t be.”

The new standards are a product of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, which Kidd says first applied to large urban areas and over time has been expanded to include smaller and smaller areas.

As part of the planned improvements, Greenbelt will stop using dry bulk chemicals, which must be handled manually, and go to a new liquid chemical treatment system. The changes should reduce the burden on workers at the plant.

“We just had a semi-truck of chemical that we had to unload, and it took all of us five hours,” Kidd said. With the new system, a truck could pump the liquid chemical directly into holding facilities at the plant.

The new system will also change the treatment of the water itself as Greenbelt moves from a chlorine treatment to a new method using chloramines (chlorine and ammonia).

“The flavor and characteristics of the water will change,” Kidd said. “We don’t know what that change will be exactly, but I think it will be for the better.”

The plant’s 34-year-old filters will be replaced during the project as well.

Some alterations were made to the filters in the 1970s, but they remain essentially unchanged. Kidd said that no one originally knew how long the filters would last but that time and experience has shown they have reached the end of their useful lifespan.

Computer systems in the plant will also be updated, which will allow Greenbelt to stop sending handwritten reports to the state.

Financing for the project has been secured, and Freese and Nichols, Inc. – the same engineering firm which designed the Greenbelt Reservoir and the filter plant – is proceeding with plan details. Kidd said the project should go to bids by December with construction starting next spring. Estimated time for completing the project is two years.

The changes have nothing to do with the slight yellowish-brown tint the water has taken on in Clarendon recently. That is a result of algae in the lake, Kidd said.

“It’s caused by manganese from algae blooms in the lake,” he said. “People who have lived here a long time know it gets that way every few years.”

High temperatures – with lake temperatures in the 80s – has spurred the growth of the algae in the lake. The manganese from the algae reacts with the residual chemicals used to treat the water, which results in the coloration once the water reaches the city. The water is actually clear coming out of the treatment plant.

“It’s not harmful. It just looks bad and smells bad.”

The water is clearing up, though, and should be back to normal soon.