Marion bringing in expert to solve filter plant fiasco

Marion bringing in expert to solve filter plant fiasco

Forensic engineer to examine faulty equipment as city and manufacturer continue finger pointing

news@theeveningtimes.com

Marion has decided to hire a forensic engineering firm to help get to the bottom of what is wrong with its new filter plant.

The city shut down the filter plant in November after it was discovered that sand and gravel particles from the filter media were getting into the system.

The cause of the problem and who is responsible — the manufacturer or the installing contractor — is unknown.

Mayor Frank Fogleman told the water and sewer commission that Bond Engineering believes the problem is due to a faulty water jet or air nozzle which has caused a depression in the layers of sand and gravel.

“That seems to be the current guess where the problem is,” Fogleman said. “Now, what the problem is, we don’t know at this juncture.”

Fogleman said the only way they can find out is to dig the media up.

“There is three or four feet of dirt to get to the water manifold where the injector nozzles are to figure out if something is wrong with one of the jets,” Fogleman said.

Fogleman said there is a big risk, however, that they could damage something in the process.

Tonka Water Treatment Solutions which manufactures the equipment has been to the plant but told the city in a letter that they do not believe their equipment is the cause of the problem.

Mike Bell of B& B Utility Contractors who installed the equipment, said Tonka representatives were present during the installation process and inspected their work and they do not believe

it is an installation

problem.

“Why is it my fault?” Bell asked. “All of the nozzles were in place. Tonka’s representative inspected everything that was put in. According to their letter (to B& B) if there was anything wrong with their product, you would have seen it a long time ago. That well has run for 12 months. How many millions of gallons have you run through there.” As far as the city is concerned, whatever the problem is it should still be covered under the warranty. Bell said he wasn’t alerted by the city that there was a problem until November — three months after his warranty

was up.

“If something happened to the nozzles during installation, it would have started as soon as you started it up,” Bell said. “I’ve got to believe it wasn’t a sudden thing.”

Bell said Tonka told them that they believe an air bubble caused the problem during the backwash process.

In the backwash process the airlines are supposed to displace a uniform amount of air throughout the system and bubble the water back up through the layers of filter media to wash out any impurities. When the air is turned off, the material is supposed to settle back down.

“It could have happened during the backwash process,” Bell said.

“Could it not have been a manufacturing defect where one of the jets gave up?” Fogleman asked.

“I doubt it,” Bell said.

Fogleman said the city operates a similar filter plant at its College Street station and has never had a problem before with the equipment, and that the city has plumbing safeguards in place to prevent that from occurring.

“We know our employees didn’t cause that,” Fogleman said. “So, either there is a flaw in the manufacturing process or in the installation process.”

Jerome Alford of Bond Engineering agrees and said it’s likely that a water jet or nozzle is putting out more water than it should and has caused the depression in the media layers.

“It’s almost impossible to blame it on an air hammer because that is based on opening or closing a valve too fast,” Alford said. “Those are manually operated. You can’t open them too fast. If it wasn’t an installation problem or a manufacturing problem, then how did all that sand and anthracite get out of it? We’re talking about a five foot dump truck full that left there. In my opinion, it’s virtually impossible that when you get in there and dig, that it’s not a nozzle that is gone bad. But to fix it, you’re going to have to take it all out and put it back in the proper stratigraphy.”

Fogleman and the water and sewer committee members agreed that the only way to find out is to get in there and dig.

“We’ve got too much money invested for it to sit there and not be used,” said Councilman Jim Spence, who chairs the water and sewer committee.

All agreed, however, that they did not want the city to be the ones to do the digging.

“I don’t believe we ought to do it ourselves,” Spence said.

“I don’t either,” added Councilman Cliff Wood.

The city got a price quote of $2,000 from Jim’s Tank Service to remove the filter media.

City Attorney James “Jimbo” Hale counseled the city to get a neutral third party first to determine what the problem is.

“We need somebody to go in and look and tell us what is wrong,” Hale said.

Alford suggested the city hire Unified Investigations & Sciences, a forensic engineering firm for the job.

“They don’t fix it,” Alford said. “But they diagnose it. They will be independent eyes. I think that’s what we need to do.”

Hale agreed.

“Let the expert tell us what we need to do,” Hale said.

Representatives from Tonka have asked to be present when the work is done. It will cost $20,000 to replace all of the media in the filter plant, but $5,000 of that cost is for Tonka’s site visit.

“We need this filter plant to work,” Hale said. “It’s not going to fix itself.”

By Mark Randall