THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 20, 1996 TAG: 9609200548
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 47 lines
Mother Nature spared Chesapeake residents salty-tasting water this summer. But she whipped up a hurricane that made the water smell moldy.
City officials said Hurricane Fran, which ravaged the East Coast earlier this month, sent south winds and surging waters up the Currituck Sound and into the Northwest River that supplies Chesapeake's drinking water.
The high waters seeped over the banks of the river and into surrounding swamp lands. As the waters receded, they sucked organic matter, such as dead leaves and tree branches, into the river from the swamp.
The organic matter became food for microorganisms, which multiplied and used up much of the dissolved oxygen in the river. That caused many fish to die and the water flowing out of city taps to smell funny.
The increased organic particles in the water do not pose a health threat, said Francis A. Sanders Jr., the city's water resources administrator.
City Public Utilities Director Amar Dwarkanath said, ``It's a very temporary problem.''
Figures from the city's water treatment plant show that during the worst of it, on Sept. 11, the amount of dissolved oxygen in the river was down to 0.28 parts per million. That compares with a normal level of between 1 and 5 parts per million, Sanders said.
Wednesday, the amount of dissolved oxygen was 1.06 parts per million, Sanders said.
Workers at the city's Northwest River Water Treatment Plant have been injecting higher amounts of carbon into the water, to counteract the odor.
Sanders said it could be two or three weeks before the water supply was back to normal.
``I think that it's going to take a little bit of rain - not a tremendous amount,'' he said. ``And also to just let the river settle back down. Because when you move the river up, and the water comes up two to three feet, it really mixes things up.''
The problem pales in comparison to last summer, when the city's water customers suffered through several months of salty-tasting water. Lack of rain sent chloride levels in the Northwest River soaring, forcing many residents and businesses to switch to bottled water or install expensive distillation systems.
Dwarkanath said chlorides increased for a day or two immediately after Hurricane Fran because winds forced salty Currituck Sound water into the Northwest River. Chlorides have returned to low levels, he said.
KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE WATER HURRICANE FRAN by CNB