The water department has begun flushing Jasper's system this afternoon.
After officials received the all clear from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management on the quality of water being produced at the plant, the city began flushing the hydrants.
"Now we want to get that good water into the system," said Mayor Terry Seitz of the flushing.
Officials hope to have IDEM approval to start the water testing cycle Friday.
The boil order is still in effect since the testing has not started yet. And, according to Seitz, it will have to stay in effect until the testing cycle is complete which will take at least 48 hours.
State and local water officials might have identified why the manganese level increased and chlorine levels decreased within Jasper’s water supply — the process causing an ongoing boil order that began early Wednesday morning and was expected to last at least three days.
The Patoka River recently flipped — the water near the bottom rose to the top and vice versa. The activity caused mud along of the riverbed, in which manganese naturally exists, to climb toward the surface and infiltrate the water pumped from the river near the Third Avenue Bridge into the city’s system.
“It’s more of a turbidity problem,” Gas and Water Manager Ernie Hinkle said this morning. “When the water from the bottom comes to the top, it brings the mud up with it. The reason we got manganese is because it’s in the mud. The level was higher than the plant normally ever sees. The plant’s filters could not handle it.”
Manganese is a naturally occurring element found in rock formations, soil, water and air. But now that the river is settling, levels are diminishing back to normal.
“Things are improving as we’re talking,” Hinkle said. “But we can’t guarantee anything yet.”
The boil order therefore remains in effect and Jasper and Ireland residents are advised to continue boiling water.
“The water is getting much better,” Mayor Terry Seitz said late this morning. “But IDEM wants us to continue testing and sending results to them. They want to make sure the plant passes 24- and 48-hour testing cycles. We don’t disagree.”
The Patoka River, like other bodies of water, does flip, which Hinkle called an inversion. But the last inversion was more turbulent because of the weather.
“This has been such an unusual summer,” Hinkle said. “The weather started cooler than normal. Then we had that hot spell, and then it was drastically cool.”
It was the pattern of extreme hot then extreme cool weather that caused what Hinkle called “a major inversion.”
“The plant can handle the turbidity from a normal inversion,” he said. “But this was a major inversion, causing a huge amount of turbidity.”
Water officials noticed the manganese level dipping Wednesday. The water plant continues to receive improved water quality readings from testing performed in the last 24 hours, Seitz said. Plant operators have said chlorine levels are increasing and filters are responding.
When the city gets the OK to start flushing, residents will notice water flowing from fire hydrants throughout the city, Seitz said. There should be no noticeable change in water pressure, Hinkle added.
“We have been seeing all throughout the day a little bit of improvement in the output of the water plant,” General Utilities Manager Bud Hauersperger told the Jasper Common Council Wednesday night. “We’re starting to get chlorine into the system now. The manganese level has been dropping.”
The boil order was issued before sunrise Wednesday morning after officials realized that higher levels of manganese were in the water and was eating chlorine, which kills bacteria and makes the water safe for everyday use.
Soon after the water issue surfaced in Jasper, Patoka Lake Regional Water and Sewer District officials checked water in Patoka Reservoir to ensure the manganese level in the 8,800-acre lake hadn’t increased.
“We looked at it pretty hard,” said Jerry Allstott, said water plant superintendent, noting the lake does sometimes see manganese levels increase when the lake flips, normally sometime around Halloween. “We do in the fall, when the lake turns over and more sediment comes to the top.”
When that happens, the plant treats the water with potassium permanganate, Allstott said.
Hauersperger told the council Wednesday night that the ultraviolet filtration system that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management are mandating be installed at the plant would not have helped in this situation.
“It kind of does the same thing as chlorine does at the plant,” he said. “But it doesn’t add residual chlorine like we needed into the system. It’s kind of a purification thing. But I don’t think it would have helped what we ran into this time.”
The water in the Jasper plant’s clear-well tank was still tainted Wednesday with the water contaminated with the high manganese level. So as of Wednesday evening, workers were “pumping that out to try to get rid of some of that water so that we can put fresh clean water into it,” Hauersperger said.
If all goes well, the plant hopes to be pumping good water with the appropriate chlorine levels into the system soon. When the system is flushed, water in the city’s three water tanks will be removed, but the tanks will not be completely drained. The water left in the tanks will be mixed with good water from the plant “just enough to get that chlorine level up,” Hauersperger said. “We will mix that chlorinated water with what’s left in there.”
Once suitable water is being pumped and the water with the elevated level of manganese has been flushed, the water will still need to be tested once and again 24 hours later.
“We’re probably talking another couple of days if all things go as we’d like,” Hauersperger said.
In the meantime, water customers need to continue to boil water used for drinking, coffee, tea, powdered drinks, fountain drinks, ice, brushing teeth and washing dishes, Seitz said this morning.