Water plant fully operational

New Rockford’s water plant is once again running at full capacity, bringing a return to higher-quality drinking water for the city’s residents.

For a number of weeks the plant’s new reverse osmosis (RO) system had been forced to run at half capacity, and wasn’t running at all on Friday, July 14.

The problem was well understood – a “pressure line” that allows water to go through the RO system that typically runs at 20-30 psi (pounds per square inch), had suddenly leaped to 60 psi.

The cause, however, went undiscovered for weeks, leading to decreased water quality for a community that has seen brown and harsh-tasting water countless times this past year due to multiple problems at the plant.

The seemingly endless struggles reached a boiling point at the New Rockford City Commission meeting on July 10, when Commissioner Jim Belquist threatened legal action against “everybody that’s connected with this.”

Thankfully, on Saturday, July 15, the cause of this most recent issue was apparently addressed.

According to Public Works Superintendent Bruce Hirchert, it was discovered that a build-up of some kind had reduced the opening of a six-inch pipe to just two inches, significantly increasing water pressure through that line.

Once that build-up was removed, Hirchert said the RO units fired up right away and have been running smoothly ever since.

However, the root cause of that build-up is still unclear, and moving forward Hirchert said they’ll be doing a full review of the entire system – even down to what chemicals and pipes they’re using.

Hirchert said the build-up could be a result of the chemicals being used to treat New Rockford’s drinking water, and therefore a contractor has been scheduled to review chemicals being used at the plant.

It could also be determined that some, if not all, of the ductile iron pipe at the plant needs to be removed and replaced with PVC pipe, as the build-up causing the pressure increase was discovered at the opening of a ductile iron pipe.

Hirchert said whatever’s caused the build-up could also be causing the brown, discolored water some residents have seen in their homes, but for now it’s impossible to know. And that’s why a thorough review of the entire system is being conducted.

The hope is to identify any and all potential issues with the new RO system, and to optimize the system as much as possible.

With any luck, the city will finally be able to put the constant struggles at their water plant behind them.