Dateline: October 9, 2003

New water treatment might affect pet fish

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

A new method for treating water coming from the Greenbelt Reservoir is expected to come online next week, and officials with the local water authority are advising aquarium owners to be ready for the change.

Beginning Monday, the Greenbelt Water Authority will treat water with chloramines – a combination of chlorine and ammonia, which is harmless to humans but can be toxic to pet fish.

“Aquariums will need carbon filters to remove the ammonia,” said Greenbelt General Manger Bobbie Kidd. “That’s the only way to get it out.”

Using chloramines will reduce the level of disinfection byproducts (DBPs), which are not a problem in the local drinking water but were appearing at the far end of Greenbelt’s distribution network.

Greenbelt provides water for municipal and industrial customers between Clarendon and Crowell and serves a population of more than 25,000.

Chloramines can also affect people using dialysis equipment, but Kidd said dialysis patients don’t need to be concerned about the drinking water.

“It’s just an issue for the treatment equipment,” he said.

Kidd said that medical facilities in Childress treat a lot of dialysis patients and that those facilities are “more than ready” for the change. Anyone setting up for home dialysis in the future will have their water tested and the appropriate filters put in place.

The new treatment method is part of a $2.3 million project at Greenbelt, which is upgrading the chemical feed system, disinfecting system, filtering process, and reporting process.

The project began last November and has focused on replacing the old filters, which have been in place for 35 years, and on getting the authority into new more stringent standards set by the federal government. Greenbelt officials also have tried to anticipate any new regulations which might come into effect in the next 20 years.

Other changes include doubling the electrical service at the filter plant from 500 KVA to 1,000 KVA and upgrading the computer system in the plant which controls treatment of the water and delivery of the water from the Greenbelt Reservoir from here to Crowell. The present controls were last upgraded 19 years ago, and some parts date back to 1965.

Greenbelt also completed a new storage tank at Childress as part of the upgrade.

Work at the filter plant is expected to be finished in November. The new computer system is coming online this week, and Greenbelt personnel will be undergoing training next week to learn to operate the new treatment and filtration system.