By James Beaty
Senior Editor
McALESTER —
It’s going to take a little longer than City Utilities Director David Medley initially expected before the city learns the results of new laboratory tests.
It’s the latest step the city is taking in an effort to eliminate pockets of discolored water in the city’s water supply.
On Tuesday night, Medley said the latest test results could be in as soon as Wednesday.
However, on Wednesday afternoon, Medley said the city has been required to submit two water samples for the test, taken on consecutive days, instead of the single sample that had already been hand-carried to a laboratory in Tulsa.
He now hopes to learn the results by Friday.
These are not the usual tests required by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality that are conducted to determine the quality of the city’s water supply.
“This is a special test,” Medley said.
This test is being conducted to determine whether bacteria is present inside what Medley said is a leaking 1 million gallon clearwell tank at the McAlester Water Treatment Plant.
Medley said the east clearwell —which has a roof and resembles a huge above-ground warehouse — has not been used for years because of the leak.
Instead, the city has been using the identical 1 million gallon west clearwell, which is adjacent to the leaking one, to store water before it’s piped to the city of McAlester.
Now though, Medley wants to temporarily use the leaking east clearwell again, so the “good” west one can be drained and cleaned — something he maintains should have a major impact on clearing up the discolored water that’s been periodically pouring from the faucets of the city’s water customers.
That can’t be done though, unless the other 1 million gallon clearwell is once again operative and can store already-treated water before it’s pumped to the city — which is why the city is awaiting the results of the special tests.
“We can’t use this until we run the bacterial samples on it,” Medley said on Wednesday afternoon as he stood on the roof of the currently unused east clearwell.
Medley said city workers determined that the water leaving the “good” west clearwell and headed for use by McAlester water customers recently tested high for iron and manganese — two conditions that can lead to discolored water.
The higher levels of iron and manganese in water leaving the west clearwell continued even after the city repaired and properly installed sluice gates at the city’s water intake pump station at Lake McAlester — a task which Medley had initially hoped would clear the discoloration.
It apparently did — for a few days. Then the city and the News-Capital began hearing complaints about discolored water again.
Medley concedes that the process has been at times frustrating.
On Wednesday afternoon at the city’s water treatment plant, Medley pointed to water going through the city’s clarifier system, one of the first steps in the water cleansing process.
The city’s clarifiers — which also hold 1 million gallons — are unroofed and resemble huge, above-ground pools.
After city councilors approved the project, the clarifiers were cleaned, and the pool’s walls were sandblasted and painted.
Treated water pouring from the clarifiers on Wednesday afternoon appeared crystal clear — in fact, the water in the main part of the clarifiers looked as clear as the water in a four star hotel swimming pool.
Inside the larger clarifier pool, a small pool contained water that was going through the flocculation and sedimentation process.
“It’s where you take the dirt particles out of the water,” Medley said.
Indeed, the water going through the flocculation process, which causes dirt and other impurities to band together, looked like water in a muddy creek or lake. After the water had been treated and cleansed, the process called for it to go into the larger clarifier pool.
Standing beside the clarifier on Wednesday, Medley pointed out how clear the water leaving the clarifier appeared. Tests confirmed that the water was of high quality at that point, he said.
However, he now believes the water — which would still go through several additional steps of treatment —is picking up heightened levels of iron and manganese farther down the system, inside the clearwell.
Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.
