Water Update

Water Update from the new Water Quality Manager . . .

Water Quality Manager Hired

Effective Monday September 25, the Water Utility hired me (Joseph Grande) as its new Water Quality Manager. I look forward to the opportunity to serve Madison in this important and challenging position; to let residents know we have a safe, healthy, high quality water supply; and to help keep it that way for future generations. My highest priority in the near term is to work to restore full confidence in our drinking water quality for anyone who has lost that confidence. Toward that end, I want to encourage you and all our water customers to contact me with any drinking water quality concerns, questions or comments you may have. My email is jgrande@cityofmadison.com. My phone number is 266-4654. I will be making myself available to attend neighborhood meetings, civic groups and functions, school classes, and other groups seeking information about our drinking water quality. I will also be assuming responsibility for updating and maintaining this list-serve to provide regular water quality updates to those individuals who wish to receive it. If you have any suggestions for how I can improve communication of water quality issues to the public, please let me know.

Changes to Drinking Water Quality List-serve

There will be some changes to this list-serve effective immediately while other changes will occur more gradually, based largely on user recommendations. I look forward to hearing from you and modifying the content of this list-serve based on your suggestions. An immediate change is that updates will occur on a more regular schedule. A Water Quality update will be posted every third Tuesday of the month to coincide with Water Board meetings. The update will include a preview of information to be presented at the monthly meeting. Additional postings may also occur as needed.

Well 29 Shutdown for Winter --Chlorinator Problem Discovered

A Water Utility review of records today, following the shutdown of Well 29 for the winter yesterday, revealed that a faulty meter at the well had disrupted the introduction of chlorine and fluoride at the well since August 29. During that entire period, the well was on standby status and was only operating twice a week, in the middle of the night, for about eight hours total per week. At all times that the well was not operating, the area was being served by wells with proper chlorine and fluoride feed rates. As of yesterday, the well is shut down completely and is no longer providing any water to the system. When operating, Well 29 served residents on the far east side of Madison.

Routine testing at a distribution site served by Well 29 has shown sustained chlorine residual levels over the past month, indicating sufficient disinfection, and all bacteriological samples from that sample location have come back safe, indicating no bacterial contamination. Ten chlorine residual measurements and ten bacteriological samples were collected during the time period in which untreated water was added to the system.

Dr. Thomas Schlenker, Director of Public Health for Madison and Dane County said, “Because we get our drinking water from a deep underground aquifer that is protected from microbial contamination, and because drinking water samples collected nearby during the period of the meter malfunction consistently showed adequate chlorine levels and no microbial growth, the health risks associated with this incident would appear to be very minimal. Individuals who may have briefly consumed unchlorinated water would not likely have experienced any ill effects.” A review of public health records for the past month showed no increase in gastrointestinal illnesses that could be attributed to consumption of non-chlorinated water.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources was informed about the situation and is reviewing whether any code violations have occurred as a result of the incident.

The Mayor has asked Utility General Manager David Denig-Chakroff, Water Quality Manager Joseph Grande, and City Engineer Larry Nelson to review the incident to determine why it happened and how any similar occurrence can be avoided in the future.

Three Highest Manganese-Producing Wells Shutdown; Fourth to Follow


With water demand ebbing, Well 29 now joins Well 3 (Isthmus area) and Well 10 (near west side) offline and out of service for winter. These wells have been notorious for producing elevated levels of manganese and will remain out of service at least until demand picks up in the spring, when their need for stand-by service will be re-evaluated. Well 8 (southeast side of Isthmus) is also expected to be shutdown later this month or early next month.

Long-Term Options for Well 3

On Tuesday (October 3) at the request of the Emerson East Neighborhood Association, David Denig-Chakroff, General Manager, and I made a brief presentation to the neighborhood group on the long-term options for Well 3. Because of concerns over elevated levels of carbon tetrachloride as well as iron and manganese, three options are currently under consideration by the Water Utility. They include: 1) installing a filtration/treatment system to the existing well, 2) abandoning the well without replacing it, or 3) replacing Well 3 at a new location. Each option has its problems and the utility will investigate these options over the next several months. At the present time, option 1 is unlikely. The age of the well combined with site restrictions limit the feasibility of this option. From a water quality and cost perspective, option 2 is appealing. However, abadoning the well might lead to water shortages in the Isthmus area during peak demand periods or a fire emergency, and the Utility might not be able to satisfy our water supply redundancy requirement. The Water Utility is currently assessing these issues. Finally, siting a new well in the Isthmus area, option 3, may be very difficult due to regulatory requirements. If a site were identified, it would be costly and could take years before the new well came online. In the meantime, short-term water shortages could occur.

City-Wide Manganese Sampling Now Complete

The collection of household tap samples for the manganese monitoring program was completed this week. A total of 469 samples were collected city-wide and samples are currently being analyzed by the City lab. Results will be presented in future postings to this list-serve and at Water Board meetings.

Joseph Grande
Water Quality Manager
Madison Water Utility
266-4654
jgrande@cityofmadison.com