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New cause of murky water found
By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD © St. Petersburg Times, published October 3, 2000 TAMPA -- When complaints about the weird looking water started spiking in August, the city quickly reassured people about the brownish stuff gurgling from their taps and soiling their laundry: Don't worry. It's just organic colors like you have in tea and wine, the totally harmless byproduct of vegetation killed by the drought. Now, the city has another explanation: That rusty color is really the totally harmless result of high-chloride water from Sulphur Springs scouring the insides of old pipes and letting iron seep into the water. "There's nothing wrong with it, other than it just looks ungodly," said City Council chairman Charlie Miranda. Mike Bennett, special projects and operations manager at the Tampa Water Department, said the city reguarly augments its primary source, the Hillsborough River, with water from Sulphur Springs during dry periods in the spring, but usually only for a month or two. This year, owing to the drought, the city added Sulphur Springs water from February to August. Scientists and engineers working for the city concluded the water softened the layers of calcium carbonate and iron hydroxide that have formed over the years on the inside of some pipes. That left iron on the pipes exposed. The homes most affected, Bennett said, are those with pre-1950s pipes in South Tampa, Davis Islands, Town 'N Country, Sulphur Springs and parts of downtown. He said the water department logged 822 complaints in August -- 83 of them in one day -- and 702 in September. Apart from the brownish water, some people reported faucets dripping yellowish water, which Bennett describes as the result of the calcium carbonate itself. "We knew something wasn't quite right with our system," Bennett said. "For every person that calls, there are 10 that don't." The water department, in a press release, described the problem as one concerning the water's "aesthetic characteristics," with tests showing the presence of no dangerous bacteria. By adjusting the alkalinity of the water at the Hillsborough River Water Treatment Plant, the department hopes to rebuild the pipes' protective coatings and eliminate the problem within six weeks. In order to gauge the plan's progress, the water department is asking people who find odd color in their water to report it to the Emergency Repair & Service section at (813) 274-7400. "I think this is one more casualty, if you will, of the drought," Councilman Bob Buckhorn said. "It's an ever-present reminder of what a fragile ecosystem we have." Peggy Traina, 60, of South Tampa, who aired her concerns to Buckhorn at a neighborhood function recently, told the Times her favorite white blouse came out of the wash the wrong color. "It came out, and it looks like weak tea," she said, adding that bleaching it doesn't seem to help. "I was tempted to call the city of Tampa and say, "You owe me a blouse,' " she said. "I suppose I can still wear it and pretend it's that color." - Christopher Goffard can be reached at (813) 226-3337 or goffard@sptimes.com.
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From the Times |
