ATCHISON, Kan. — The city of Atchison will spend $8 million on a new water treatment facility after receiving multiple drinking water violations, according to kshb.com.
Residents received notices that the plant violated a drinking water standard in May, noted the article. Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and total haloacetic acids (HAA5) were found occasionally out of range.
Resident Pamela Lewis said in the article that the city’s water has a strong odor. "It does smell more like a swimming pool than a glass of drinking water. It's like a mood ring; it changes moods from week to week, day to day."
Mary Mindrop, chief of the drinking water management branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, shared in the article the contaminants can have long-term effects on people. “A person who drinks the water for a lifetime, over their lifetime, could have problems with liver, kidney, [the] central nervous system, or [an] increased cancer risk.”
The city’s water was found out of range three times in the past 10 years, reported the article. Mindrup added in the article the test results are a safety net for the city, and that to cause any real harm, “the water would have to be in constant violation and a person would have to drink it over the course of 70 years to be at risk.”
City Manager Trey Cocking explained in the article that the plant’s processes will change. It will use ozone instead of chlorine to treat water.
"We're making a huge investment," Cocking said in the article. "Hopefully, by this time next year, we'll have the best water in the region." The new system should be in place by 2016.
You can find the entire article here.
