FAULTY CHEMICAL CAUSES LABOR DAY BOIL NOTICE
What happened:
During the Labor Day holiday, the Laguna Madre Water District (LMWD) issued a boil and a low-pressure notice to the residents of South Padre Island. "The two things that happened go hand-in-hand because when the pressure goes below 20 PSI (pounds per square inch), we are supposed to give a boil notice to all the customers," said LMWD's General Manager Carlos Galvan.
The only affected area was customers on the north end of the island, according to Galvan. "That's the farthest end of the distribution system where we pump the water from the main plant in Laguna Vista. By the time it gets up there, the pressure is lost."
Why it matters:
A faulty chemical is what caused the LMWD to issue their boil and low-pressure notice. "One of the problems that we had that day is that we received a chemical at the water treatment plant that was bad quality," said Galvan. He revealed the LMWD would not be ordering from the same company that was the vendor in the last weeks' chemical error. "The chemical, aluminum sulfate, makes the dirt come together in the water and settle down at the bottom. The topwater is the clean water that we use to treat."
In the purification process, the aluminum sulfate failed to coagulate (pictured to the right) and gather the dirt particles. This caused a clog in the membrane since it was dirty water. "All of the dirty things that were sticking to the outside of the membrane was making the membrane clog up. We were losing water, and because the water wasn't going through, the result was low water pressure," stated Galvan.
What now:
The district plans to develop a PowerPoint explanation for the public to have on record.
According to Galvan, the filter membrane was having difficulty filtering the water, so we were losing water. "If we were starting with 1000 gallons, only 500 gallons was being pumped out. The rest was going to the dirty water."
"I ordered the same chemical, that is a better quality, from a different company."
When non-residents return to their properties, how long should they run their water to guarantee safe drinking water?
5 minutes
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Island Matters | P.O. Box 2778 | South Padre Island, TX 78597
