Look Inside a WTP
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Government
Residents were invited to tour the public water utilities to see how the city's water resources are purified and tested
"With the Flint, Mich., water crisis people became concerned about their own drinking water," said Carolyn Burnham, chairperson of the Batavia Environmental Commission. "We are confident our drinking water is safe. Batavia has been ahead of the curve — the issues that Flint was dealing with, Batavia actually addressed years ago," Burnham said.
One of the buildings filters the water for the removal of iron, manganese and hydrogen sulfide and then chlorinated, while water from the deep aquifer is processed in another building for the removal of radium.
According to John Dillon, there is no lead in the municipal water supply. He said lead can enter drinking water when it comes in contact with lead products used in plumbing systems, such as the service lines that carry water from the city water mains to the house, lead-based solder used to connect copper pipes in homes and lead plumbing fixtures such as faucets.
He said Batavia has used an ortho-phosphate corrosion control chemical since the 1990s to help mitigate the effects of lead and copper corrosion. The ortho-phosphate provides a protective barrier on the interior of plumbing so the water does not come in contact with the lead or copper pipe materials, he said.
Dillon said in 1992, the city decided to abandon some of the deep wells in the downtown used for 100 years and utilize the shallow-well aquifer located two miles west of Randall Road.
"The shallow wells do not have naturally occurring radium like the deep-bed aquifers. We are blending the two aquifers before it is distributed to residents — it is the best of both worlds," Dillon said.
Dillon said as demand increases with population growth in northeastern Illinois, there may be a push for communities as far west as Batavia to get water from Lake Michigan, like communities in Cook and DuPage counties, or use the Fox River as a resource, as do the cities of Aurora and Elgin.
"In 50 years, Lake Michigan might be possible — using the Fox River is also possible," he said. "Illinois is known as a water-abundant state, but the well-water that we rely on is not an infinite supply of water."
Source: Chicago Tribune
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