Supplier sheds light on city's water issues

City commissioners on Monday, Nov. 6 heard from a representative of Aqua Pure regarding the city’s water plant, and new details were revealed about why the plant hasn’t been operating as well as commissioners expected.

George Reck of Aqua Pure – the City of New Rockford’s new chemical supplier – explained that membranes within the plant's new reverse osmosis (RO) system appear to have deteriorated significantly since the system became operational just over a year ago.

Those membranes, as he explained, are responsible for filtering out dissolved solids and various pollutants, ensuring that only pure water can get through.

The RO system in New Rockford has 108 total membranes, each one being important to protect and potentially costly to replace.

In New Rockford’s case, Reck explained that other processes weren’t effective enough at filtering out impurities prior to the water getting to the RO system and its membranes, meaning those membranes, were being asked to do more filtration than they were designed for.

“The issue you have right now is that those membranes have only been in there for about a year and four or five months,” said Reck, “but because of the nature of what’s been happening with the chemistry going to the ROs, there’s been a lot of manganese going to the [membranes] that have caused deterioration.”

Reck explained that one membrane was removed and is essentially undergoing a sort of “autopsy,” which is expected to determine the exact nature of the deterioration and whether the membranes can be salvaged.

Since the membrane issue was uncovered, Reck said they’ve managed to improve the quality of the water going to the membranes “dramatically,” and work is still underway to continue improving those other processes.

Therefore, the primary focus is what to do about the membranes, which according to Reck can cost between $750 to $1,000 each to replace.

The city’s current warranty agreement for the membranes with Wigens – the RO’s manufacturer – was only for one year, which has already passed. For the second year the membranes are only pro-rated.

So, Aqua Pure is offering its own warranty agreement on the membranes which would last for a full three years.

However, the city would first have to purchase several pieces of equipment that would improve monitoring capabilities and improve the overall well-being of the membranes, which themselves are fairly costly – though much less costly than replacing 108 membranes.

The city got rough estimates for what some of that equipment might cost, but not all of it, and they didn’t know the potential cost of any electrical changes that would need to be made within the plant to accommodate some equipment.

So, the commission elected to hold off on signing a warranty agreement with Aqua Pure until more concrete price estimates are attained, which would also give time for the city attorney, Travis Peterson, to draft the official paperwork.

By December’s meeting, commissioners should also be in possession of the report detailing the exact nature of the membranes’ deterioration, and better understand how many might need to be replaced.

The commissioners did, however, finalize their agreement with Aqua Pure to become their new chemical supplier, unanimously carrying a motion to give Commission President Stu Richter the go ahead to sign the contract.

Following their discussion with Reck, several community members spoke to the commissioners regarding various concerns.

Dean Vorland brought the commission's attention to the stumps still left from where the old street lights used to be, and where some of the holes cut into the concrete have yet to be filled, saying they’re dangerous and a potential tripping hazard.

The commissioners agreed that something needs to be done, but with winter approaching, they decided the best thing to do for now was to have those holes filled with gravel.

Justin Stanton and Jim Fleming also spoke to the commission to express their concerns with the city’s water utility billing.

Both said they don’t believe they should be getting billed for properties that don’t use water, and in Fleming’s case, for a property that doesn’t even have a structure on it – but does have a curb stop.

Stanton, who owns and leases several properties in New Rockford, also requested a refund because he was billed for vacant properties before some other New Rockford property owners began getting billed for their vacant properties.

He also expressed concerns that he’s getting billed for a property he no longer owns. The commission requested he write down a list of properties and specific concerns regarding each of them, so that they could go over it and attempt to resolve the problem. They did not commit to providing a refund.

Also at the meeting on Monday, commissioners unanimously carried a motion to vacate the order to demolish a property owned by Janet Sinkler. Richter said updates were made to the property, and that Sinkler had filed a motion to withdraw her appeal of the final order of demolition.

The commission also approved a motion to vacate the demolition order for a property at 203 3rd Avenue South, and elected to put two other properties – located at 1022 5th Avenue North and 1014 5th Avenue North – on the “blighted list” for next year.

The next city commission meeting is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. in City Hall.