THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602160233
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Random Rambles
SOURCE: Tony Stein
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
There's an old saying that ``Into each life a little rain must fall.'' Amar Dwarkanath will drink to that. With a glass of currently tasty and refreshing Chesapeake city water, of course.
Yes, H20 fans, Chesapeake city water no longer has the flavor of used dinosaur mouthwash. It has been that way since mid-January, and it will stay that way for a while, the good Lord willin' and the Currituck Sound don't rise. That's because the brackish water of the Currituck Sound is what makes ``Gurgle, gurgle, bleah!'' the sometime sound of Chesapeakers schlurping the stream from their taps.
Dwarkanath is the city's utilities director, and I figured it was only fair to let him bask in the sunshine of good-tasting city water. After all, when the water's bad, we talk about Dwarkanath's department like it was a landlord who evicted a poor widow on a snowy Christmas Eve. I do not blush to recall one of my suggestions, made during a bleah! period a few years ago.
I observed that the city was rapidly being swamped by empty gallon water jugs. So if Virginia Beach could create Mount Trashmore out of garbage, why couldn't Chesapeake create Mount Jugmore? Pile 'em up, throw some dirt on top and plant some grass on it. Just like that, you've got a mountain in a city generally flatter than a seat cushion in an elephant house.
The city has a split personality, water-wise. Western Branch, South Norfolk, Norfolk Highlands, Indian River, Camelot and Cavalier Industrial Park normally get either Norfolk on Portsmouth water. But 60 percent of us draw water from the Northwest River. And the river connects with Currituck Sound in North Carolina. The river is fresh water. The sound is not. That's the basic recipe for our water woes.
When the weather is dry, the water level in the river drops. That enables water from the sound to invade. Or, when an east or southeast wind blows, it can force water from the sound into the river. Once again, we've got a mix that leaves us with an overdose of chloride in city water. When the amount of chloride hits 250 parts per million, the average person knows he ain't swilling the nectar of the gods.
The sodium content of the water goes up along with the chloride. That's no taste problem but it's bad health news if you are on a sodium-restricted diet. Talk to your doctor, Dwarkanath says. You can check chloride and sodium levels by calling the city's hotline at 547-6360.
When we get enough rain, the chloride and sodium levels graciously sink. Last Monday when I talked to Dwarkanath, the official chloride count for the day was 35 parts per million. The water tastes great, Dwarkanath told me with the air of a guy who had just popped the cork on France's finest champagne. He and the rest of the folks at the water department are entitled. They're innocent victims of nature. When the inevitable happens and the chloride count edges up, be kind. Don't do like at least one water customer did. He sent an envelop full of salt to City Hall.
Dwarkanath, by the way, is on a Northwest River line like that 60 percent of us. I've seen him at the supermarket toting jugs home. ``People are friendly and pleasant about it,'' he says. ``They say, `Oh, there's the water man buying water, too.' ''
I have been filling water jugs at one of the firehouses that gets Norfolk water, but that can have its hazards. A while back, I went to the Rokeby Avenue firehouse to load the allowable 10 gallon jugs. The jugs were in the back of my station wagon as I stopped for a red light on Battlefield Boulevard.
I stopped. The guy behind me didn't. Wham! and splash! as water from the jugs blew up and out like Old Faithful on wheels. The car is musty but repaired. I am musty but thankfully unhurt.
For now, I have put my jugs aside and am enjoying the straight article from the faucet. And permanent help is on the way. We Chesapeakers have voted ``yea'' on a utility bond issue for about $72.5 million. Most of that will be to upgrade the water plant on Battlefield Boulevard South. That's the one with the big dome that looks, on a hazy night, like a tour bus from Mars. The upgrade will solve two problems, Dawrkanath says.
One problem is the fact that federal law requires the upgrade and when the water quality feds say ``Jump!'' the city's answer has to be ``How high?'' Problem two is the occasional unhappy marriage of Currituck Sound and the Northwest River. The new plant will de-salt the water while it keeps them smiling in Washington.
But when the plant comes to pass in a couple of years, you can bet that nobody will be wearing a bigger smile than the Water Man himself, Amar (Goodbye, Chloride Curse) Dwarkanath. by CNB