THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280622
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONY GERMANOTTA AND ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 141 lines
Coffee made with the stuff is all but drinkable. Iced tea tastes as if someone used salt instead of sugar.
Ice cubes impart foul flavors. Showers leave a briny residue.
Chesapeake residents tried to cope with spigots that served up aggravation instead of relief Thursday.
For only the second time since the city began relying on the Northwest River in 1980, salinity levels through much of Chesapeake tripled federal thresholds.
The chlorides that give the water its salty taste had reached 791 parts per million Thursday. The taste becomes objectionable, according to federal standards, at just 250.
Chlorides affect only the water's taste. More serious was a steep rise in the city's sodium level, which at 396 parts per million was nearly 20 times the level recommended for those on severely restricted salt diets. Average sodium levels for other South Hampton Roads' cities range from 8 to 12 parts per million.
``Chlorides make the water taste like hell, but they are not a health problem for anyone,'' said Daniel B. Horne, engineering field director for the Virginia Department of Health, Office of Water Programs.
Sodium poses a health risk only for those with high blood pressure or kidney problems, he said. People on restricted salt diets or others who are concerned should talk to their family physicians before drinking the tap water.
``People on dialysis or with other kidney diseases should definitely be drinking bottled water,'' said Dr. Michael R. Higgins, a nephrologist at Tidewater Kidney Specialists.
``If your kidneys are damaged, then you are taking more salt than you should, and you cannot get rid of it because the kidney is no longer capable of controlling the body's salt content,'' he said.
Boiling the water makes it taste worse, Horne said, because the water evaporates but the salt does not. Freezing water will tend to concentrate the salt on the outside, he said. ``Scrape the top of your ice cubes,'' or, better yet, buy pre-made ice, he said.
The combination of bad taste and potential health risk left a huge chunk of the city's 182,000 residents scrambling to find alternatives.
Many turned to bottled drinks.
Jugs of spring water were hot items at area stores and supermarkets.
Ginger K. Marshall, a cashier at the INA Hurry Food Store on Kempsville Road, said bottled water sales were up 69 percent.
``I don't know whether it's because of the heat or the water,'' she said Thursday, ``but it's going real good now.''
Even Chesapeake General Hospital began switching patients over to commercial supplies. By today, a spokeswoman said, all drinking water at the hospital will come from jugs of distilled water.
At the Water Hut on North Battlefield Boulevard, where taps dispense distilled water, sales over the past few weeks have gone up about 25 to 30 percent, said owner Hunsu Kim.
``We drink a lot of tea, and you can't drink it with the water here,'' explained Barbara C. Wike, 46, who brought her 10-year-old son, John, and his two friends to help her fill a bunch of gallon jugs. With the tap water, she said, ``you can't make orange juice, you can't make anything.''
The positive side is that Chesapeake residents don't need salt tablets to replace minerals lost in the record heat wave.
``Because people are sweating off salt in the summer heat,'' said Dr. Francis J. Stenicka, a Chesapeake family physician, ``most can afford to drink a little more in their water.''
The salty conditions arose because of a combination of climatic patterns.
Chesapeake's main source of water is the Northwest River, and when there isn't enough rain to flush it out with winds blowing steadily from the brackish Currituck Sound, saltier water is pushed up to the treatment plant's intake pipes.
In 1985-86, two years of drought and persistent winds off the ocean set the standard for foul Chesapeake water. Salinity levels then reached more than 1,600 parts per million. Ocean water is about 35,000 parts per million.
If the high chloride levels persist as they did in the mid-1980s, there is an increased risk of corrosion for mechanical equipment that comes in contact with the water, said Horne, of the Health Department. He had to replace his home's water heater after the '80s drought.
The city sought a way to avert a repeat of the high-salt conditions. In 1990 it developed an underground reservoir where surplus treated water was banked in times of plenty to be drawn during droughts.
Since Sunday, 3 million gallons of that stored water have been added daily to the 8.7 million gallons of Northwest River water, said Public Utilities Director Amar Dwarkanath.
The underground aquifer is near the Hampton Roads Airport on U.S. Route 58.
The water from the aquifer enters city pipelines and heads east toward Bowers Hill, Deep Creek and across the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River, Dwarkanath said. The farther it goes, the more it mixes with salty Northwest River water.
By the time it hits the heavily populated areas of Great Bridge, Greenbrier and some sections of Deep Creek, there's little left but the super-salty river water.
Some sections of Chesapeake are unaffected because the city buys water for them from the Norfolk and Portsmouth systems, which rely on reservoirs that don't have salinity problems.
Dwarkanath said that the salt problems should be solved by a treatment system upgrade required by new federal standards. Improved filters will be so effective they will be able to remove the dissolved salts as well as the intended impurities.
Residents have been asked to approve a $72 million bond referendum in November to pay for those improvements. MEMO: Staff writers Francie Latour, Toni Whitt and Karen Weintraub contributed
to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
From left, John Wike, 10, Barbara Wike, Ben Shoup, 9, and Ryan
Shoup, 7, buy bottles of water at Water Hut in Chesapeake, where
sales of distilled water have gone up 25 to 30 percent. Barbara Wike
says she had to buy water because Chesapeake water tastes so bad.
The foul taste is a result of too many chlorides in the water.
Graphics
CHESAPEAKE WATER
SODIUM AND CHLORIDE COUNTS
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
COPING TIPS
Don't boil the water - it just increases the concentration of
salt and makes the water taste worse.
When salty water is frozen, the salt tends to concentrate on the
outside, so shave your ice cubes to make them more palatable.
Chloride makes water taste terrible but poses no health risks.
High sodium content in water has no taste but can aggravate heart
and kidney problems. People on sodium-restricted diets should see
their physicians before drinking tap water.
Free city water is available at the following Fire Stations:
Rokeby Avenue, Freeman Avenue, Dock Lanking Road, Homestead Road and
Whittamore Road. There is a 5-gallon limit at some stations.
For water quality updates, call the city's hotline: 547-6360.
KEYWORDS: WATER QUALITY CHESAPEAKE by CNB