Officials speculate cause of water problem

This morning, Gas and Water Manager Ernie Hinkle said they may never know exactly what caused the increased turbidity and subsequent boil order for the City of Jasper.

“We may never know,” Hinkle said. “They (Indiana Department of Environmental Management) aren’t 100 percent sure of what caused it.”

According to Hinkle, Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) officials have been studying the problem and can only speculate on what caused it. He explained that their thoughts are the unusually cool summer impacted the river water, the extreme increase in temperature then followed by the drastic recent cool down may have caused a premature inversion of the water levels.

Bodies of water have layers of different density water created by temperature differences; cooler water is found at lower depths — think about diving into a lake how you can hit a layer of cold water suddenly at certain depths — and warm water stays near the surface. The line between layers is called the thermocline.

A lake or river has natural currents created by the impacts of the ambient air temperature. As the air cools or warms water, it can cause sudden inversions of the layers of water. During normal seasons — whatever those are anymore — those changes become defined in the summer and the winter while during the spring and fall, the water is more mixed as the changes occur with the air temperature changes.

This inversion then causes the layers to mix and the resulting currents can carry organic material such as mud and vegetation from the bottom of the river up to the surface of the body of water. The material eventually settles again but until the layers reestablish, that debris can be taken up into the intakes of the Jasper Municipal Water Plant.

This material is what held the manganese, according to Hinkle and created the issues with the turbidity of the water in the plant. Turbidity is simply the clarity of the water and in this case it was greatly affected by how much “mud” was being brought into the plant.

According to Hinkle, the plant has never had an occurrence like this one but it has been an unusual summer in regards to temperature and rain. “We have had inversions before, but nothing quite like this one,” he said. “It brought up so much turbidity (muddy water) from the bottom that it overwhelmed our plant.”

Dubois County has received 8.33 inches of rain since August 1; 6 inches so far in September. Across the state, the average temperature has been 6.9 degrees lower than normal, according to a report from Hoosier Ag Today.

After Wednesday’s emergency boil order for Jasper and Ireland, the water plant has been busy removing the turbidity and cleaning the filters. According to Hinkle, they are about back to normal operations and he is hopeful that IDEM will issue a go-ahead on plant water production. The mud and manganese has continued to fall and chlorine levels are returning to normal, according to Hinkle.

“The samples we are getting in from the river are looking much better,” he said. “Our plant is able to filter out the turbidity and the chemical usage to treat the water is coming down. Right now we are waiting for the turbidity to settle down to a point that we can manage it. Then IDEM will give us the go-ahead to start our flushing and testing so we can release the boil order.”l

Once IDEM approves it, the city is prepared to begin flushing water that lacks the necessary residual chlorine. Residents will begin seeing hydrant being flushed around the city once that approval is received. Then, the new water will replenish the system and have to go through several tests at different locations in the city before the boil order can be lifted.

If testing began today, it will still take a minimum of 48 hours from then to lift the boil order. This afternoon, Hinkle reported that it will be Sunday morning at the earliest before the boil order is lifted.

Hinkle and Mayor Terry Seitz have both commended the hard work by the city employees as well as the patience of the residents of the city.

“I am proud of my guys back there,” Hinkle said. “When things are the worst, they are at their finest. We have good employees working here for the city.”

The boil order continues, details here.

The City of Jasper produces about 1 million gallons of water a day on average depending upon demands. The demand for water averages about 300,000 gallons per day, again depending on the time of year. The water comes from a reservoir created by the dam below the Third Avenue Bridge upstream from the City Mill. The city does not receive any water from Patoka Lake, only the river reservoir.