News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Byrdstown residents dealing with a brown-tinted water caused by iron deposits.
Water Treatment Plant Superintendent Buster Harmon updated Byrdstown Aldermen updated on the problem Monday night. Harmon said the issue the result of iron spilling from the solution and into the water plant.
“The state has already known about this,” Harmon said. “They called me the other day and said we got a call down here about this. Well, I said it’s the same thing we have had in the past it’s just iron coming out of the solution. All the samples are coming back good and everything is coming back good it’s just pouty water.”
Harmon said the water has cleared up at the plant and will take some time for it to clear up throughout the town’s water system. Harmon said despite the issues the water is still within state regulations.
“Everything coming out of the plant has always been within limits,” Harmon said. “It’s just when it is out in the system the pH changes, it will come out of the solution.”
Harmon said the town is also experiencing issues with filters being clogged up by algae.
“It’s an algae bloom and I’ve called my slab and everything,” Harmon said. “I’ve talked to the state and I have had chemical companies come up, so it is an algae bloom that is causing it. It’s stopping the filters up and we are having to do more cleaning on the filters and that’s one thing that is hurting us right now.”
Meantime, officials nearing the end of dynamite blasting at the facility for the creation of new ponds. Harmon said they have about one more blast to go and expect the blasting to be done on Wednesday. Harmon said the water plant might have to move to a 24/7 schedule due to the amount of water usage.
“There is so much usage going up right now,” Harmon said. “We are getting a million three just in a heartbeat right now. This time of year we are hitting a million three and usually around the 4th of July we hit some big times, but in that plant down there that’s something that we are going to have to look at later on. The most that we can probably put out is about a million eight in a 24-hour period of time and that’s with the best conditions we got.”
In other business, Mayor Sam Gibson acknowledged the Pickett County High School Bass Fishing team winning the Bassmaster High School national championship.
