Faulty installation to blame for filter woes, says expert

Faulty installation to blame for filter woes, says expert

Marion officials ready to get issue ‘ sorted out’ with plant

news@theeveningtimes.com

A forensic engineere hired by Marion to get the bottom of the problem at the city’s brand new water filter plant has concluded that an improperly installed water nozzle is to blame.

Mayor Frank Fogleman said he received a report back from Unified Investigations and Sciences, the independent consultant the city hired who supervised the digging, and they concluded the nozzle had somehow worked its way off.

“It was their opinion that the nozzle hadn’t been properly installed,” Fogleman said. “It’s pretty clear cut that there is no nozzle there.”

The city shut down the filter plant, which is located behind Trinity in the Field’s Anglican Church, last November after a plumber discovered that sand and anthracite from the plant had gotten into a customer’s plumbing. The problem did not affect the city’s water quality.

Engineers suspected that the problem was due to a faulty water nozzle which had caused a depression in the sand and gravel filter media layers inside the tank.

The nozzles are spaced out to ensure a unified flow rate of water going down through the layers and a uniform rise rate up during the filtering process.

Representatives from Tonka Water Treatment Solutions, which manufactures the equipment, B& B Utility Contractors, who did the installation work, and city workers dug down into the tank where the hole was and discovered that the nozzle was missing.

Fogleman said the nozzle most likely was installed but worked its way off over time and is still somewhere inside the sand and gravel layers.

“This was the independent analysis by the forensic engineer that the City of Marion hired,” Fogleman said.

Fogleman said he has not heard back from B& B yet but expects to have a water and sewer committee meeting of the city council sometime soon to decide what the next step is.

“I’m going to wait to hear from the contractor to see what’s on his mind,” Fogleman said. “There are several things they can do.

They can dispute the findings. Or they can say ‘okay, let’s get this resolved.”

Fogleman said B& B has been very cooperative and helpful during the process.

“They helped out with the digging and stayed most if not all of the day,” Fogleman said. “I don’t want to get into a war of words with the contractor. And I don’t think any less of them. I have the same high regard for them today as I did prior to this. In fact the contractor is working on a project for us now. These types of things happen.”

Fogleman said the city has ordered a new nozzle and won’t have to spend as much money to replace the layers of filter media. The city did not have to do a full excavation. The engineer checked to make sure the nozzles on both sides of the tank were there so they did not have to disturb all of the layers.

“We didn’t see the value of removing all the media. It’s obvious the nozzle was missing,” Fogleman said.

“And as it turns out, of the five different layer materials, we have three, maybe four of them in bags. They dug down but didn’t have to disturb the rest of it. So Tonka is going to ship the one that is missing. Then we are going to go back in and just get a small amount of material and just replace what was taken out.”

Fogleman said while there will be a cost to repair the filter plant, the good news is that they have a clear answer to what caused the problem.

“If we replace the nozzle and put the media back, we should eliminate our problem,” Fogleman said.

“We’ll get to who is going to do it and who is going to pay for it. That will get sorted out.”

By Mark Randall