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Study: Reverse-osmosis best option for Lakin water
Published 11/18/2008 in News : Area coverage
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
LAKIN -- An Omaha, Neb., engineering firm is recommending the city of Lakin pursue water treatment by reverse osmosis to remedy too-high levels of uranium in its drinking water.
On Monday night, Kirkham Michael Engineers presented its findings to the Lakin City Council. Those results will go on to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for its review, and the city of Lakin, while it has not decided on a course of action, must talk about how to fund a possible $3.4 million project to treat the water.
The City Council hired Kirkham Michael in the hopes that it can come back into compliance with state laws regulating chemicals in drinking water. Tests of the city's drinking water exceed the levels allowed by the state for uranium, a naturally occurring mineral that can become dangerous with long-term exposure. City officials have said the concentrations in Lakin's water aren't an immediate health concern.
But the uranium levels have been an ongoing issue for the city, and a point of concern and focus for the KDHE.
City Administrator Fred Jones said the council's approval of the study moves it along to the KDHE, which will review it at no cost. In the meantime, Jones said, the city plans to continue looking at its water usage, operating costs for the city's water and possible assistance the city could seek in funding a solution, such as reverse osmosis.
Reverse osmosis is a separation process using pressure to force a solution through a membrane that retains the solute on one side and allows the pure solvent to pass to the other side. Not only would the process take care of the city's uranium levels, but also address other concerns, such as the nitrate level in the city's drinking water.
As it stands now, the city's nitrate levels meet guidelines, but, according to Jones, that might change, with nitrate levels having been on the rise.
According to Kirkham Michael, the city's wells pump about 226 million gallons annually for a population of about 2,450. The firm stated compliance strategies include the city looking into removing the problematic sources, such as a well, and finding new sources to provide the water; blending water sources; and/or providing water treatment, such as reverse osmosis.
Amit Shrivastava, with Kirkham Michael, and Mark Beebe, with Arber and Associates of Lakewood, Colo., also helping with the study, stated Monday the three treatment technologies of reverse osmosis, coagulation filtration and absorptive media were evaluated against various factors, including capital cost, operations and maintenance costs, cost savings per individual home owner for their water softeners, finished water quality and others.
Reverse osmosis came out on top, according to the firms, for its ability to meet any nitrate removal requirements, public acceptance, finished water quality and cost savings for individual homeowners; and for its ability to remove hardness from the city's drinking water supplies.
Beebe said treatment options can be a hard sell if there's no noticeable difference in water quality. With reverse osmosis, though, there would be a noticeable difference for water customers, he said.
The study states the proposed treatment facility would be centrally located at the site of the city chlorination building and have an estimated construction cost of $3.4 million.
The council unanimously approved the study.
The city's set to mail another notice this week to city residents explaining the city water does not meet drinking water standards.
The city states in the letter that it routinely monitors for the presence of drinking water contaminants. Results from a sample collected July 14 show the system exceeds the standard, or maximum contaminant level (MCL), for combined uranium, with the standard being 30 ug/L and city levels averaging 32 ug/L for the last year.
The notice goes on to state, "this is not an immediate risk. If it had been, you would have been notified immediately. However, some people who drink water containing uranium in excess of the MCL over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer and kidney toxicity."
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