KBIA Local
(2009-11-02)
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COLUMBIA, MO
(KBIA) -
The Columbia City Council will consider issues of water quality and supply at its meeting tonight. Scheduled presenters include the University of Missouri's Water Resources Research Center, the Missouri Department of Conservation and the U.S. Geological Survey. Also underway, put not yet ready for final approval is a proposal to drill a new well to supplement the city's water supply. As council mulls the significance of the studies offered, its environmental advisory council is calling for caution. Members of the Environment and Energy Commission worry that treated sewage effluent from the Eagle Bluffs wetlands is intermingling with 5 of the 15 wells in the McBaine River Bottoms. The wells supply 100% of the city's water. Increasing chloride in about a third of the 15 wells does not present an immediate health threat, says EEC member Tom O'Conner. Chloride, he explains, can indicate the presence of treated effluent, and has increased in the years the treatment wetlands have been in operation. Given the lack of information about the cumulative influence of the chemical gumbo humans release in their sewage, the EEC advises Columbians to closely monitor the intrusion of treated effluent into the wellfields.
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"Pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors. Anything we're making and is persistent, we're placing in the environment - and we're kind of running this experiment on ourselves, if you will."
The proposal to add another well in the effluent's zone of influence intensifies the EEC's concern. The commission sent a letter to council last week asking to present their concerns at tonight's meeting. Cathy Kacprowicz of Columbia Water and Light says there are some different interpretations of the degree of influence the effluent has on the city's drinking water."I don't know whether there's enough data at this point to draw a clear conclusion, but that's way we want to make sure we ge the data that we do have in front of the city council so they can evaluate it and see which direction they want to go."
Regarding the well, Kacprowicz says Water & Light prepared a well proposal in anticipation of the city's application for state revolving loan funds. But she adds that the council's review of water quality issues will precede any decision to authorize the city's purchasing department to put the project out to bid. Siting issues aside, the city will need to drill new wells to meet projected increases in water demand. Kacprowicz says Columbia's water usage peaked on August 14, 2007, when the city pumped almost 24 million gallons. But on an average day the city pumps about 14 million gallons a day. But based on projections the city received from an engineering firm's study in 2007, Columbia's water demands will outsize the wells' current 30 million-gallon per day capacity by 2013. © Copyright 2012, KBIA
