By Tia Lyons
Staff Writer
EL DORADO — The El Dorado Water Utilities and its customers received some good news this week about the quality of the city’s drinking water.
The Arkansas Department of Health announced that the utilities continues to perform well in mandated water-quality testing for lead and copper.
John Peppers, EWU treatment superintendent, said the EWU scored in the 90th percentile and well within the action levels for lead and copper in the city’s potable water distribution system.
The EWU’s test results easily met the allowable limits of the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for Lead and Copper.
Peppers and Mark Smith, general manager of the EWU, shared the news Wednesday with the El Dorado Water and Sewer Commission.
The NPDWR action levels for lead and copper are .015 milligrams per liter and 1.3 mg/l, respectively.
The EWU numbers were .0004 mg/l for lead and 0.73 for copper.
Peppers referred to the drinking water crisis that made national news last year in Flint, Michigan, saying that drinking water quality has been under scrutiny in cities across the country, with particular focus on lead levels.
In 2014, the city of Flint, under the direction of the state, switched water sources in an effort to save money.
The city went from a Detroit, Great Lakes water system to drawing water from the Flint River.
According to reports about the crisis, the river water was not properly treated with a corrosion inhibitor — which allowed metal to leach from aging pipes.
Consequently, Flint’s drinking water supply became contaminated with lead.
Complaints from Flint residents about the taste, smell and appearance of the water coming from their pipes went unheeded for more than a year.
Residents were told that the water was safe to drink until city and state officials announced more than a year and half later that the water had been tainted.
Flint eventually switched back to the Detroit water source, and President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency for the city.
The EWU uses deep water wells to draw from the Sparta Aquifer, the area’s primary source of drinking water.
Bret Garrett, a member of the El Dorado Water and Sewer Commission, inquired Wednesday about how the latest EWU water-quality test results compared to those in the past.
Peppers explained that the tests are conducted every three years, and El Dorado has remained in the 90th percentile for the past three testing cycles, or the last nine years.
Because of the city’s past testing performance, the EWU is on a reduced-monitoring schedule with the ADH, Peppers said.
“Which is why we get tested every three years now,” he added.
Smith said water samples were collected between June 12 and 16 from 30 households throughout the EWU’s distribution system.
“The thing about this is we don’t take the samples. The households were identified by the health department,” Smith said.
He said that per an approved sampling plan from ADH’s Division of Engineering, the EWU sends the sampling equipment to the selected households, and the customers collect the samples.
Peppers said customers use the first draw of water in the morning for their households to include in the samples that are sent to the ADH for testing.
“It should be the best representation of the quality of water a customer has their house,” Smith said.
“The water utilities provides superior tasting water from the Sparta Aquifer,” he said. “Our staff works diligently every day to ensure our customers are being supplied with the safest and best tasting drinking water available.”
In other business, commissioners asked for more information in their consideration of purchasing a recycled-water vacuum truck for the utilities.
Smith and Kenneth Roberston, EWU wastewater collection foreman, said employees demoed eight trucks and settled on the Camel 1200 model with an estimated cost of $404,828.64.
EWU employees have said the utilities’ existing vac truck is in bad shape and often breaks down.
Smith said the truck comes with a water-recycling system that would not require the constant use of fresh water to clean wastewater lines.
Moreover, with a six-stage wastewater filtration process, the truck helps to cut down on work time he said.
“Our interest is the amount of time it saves. They say it saves two days out of five. Our calculations aren’t that high. We calculated that it might save a day,” Smith said.
He said the water-recycling feature will save an estimated $40,000 - $60,000 a year.
Robertson said the Camel comes with a 10-year warranty, noting that the EWU spends a minimum of $30,000 a year on maintenance costs for the existing vac truck.
“We use it about half a day every day when it’s running,” he said.
“With the warranty, (the new truck) would pay for itself in upkeep. It would be half the upkeep costs with that single-engine design.”
Smith said he checked with several references who all said they were pleased with the truck.
“How long had they had it?” Garrett asked.
“The longest one had used it was 18 months,” Smith said.
Garrett recommended that Smith find users who have used the truck longer than 18 months before agreeing to take bids.
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or by email at [email protected].