DATE: Friday, August 22, 1997               TAG: 9708220761

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   65 lines

CHESAPEAKE TAP WATER SALTY - AGAIN CHLORIDE LEVELS HAVE SOARED SEVEN TIMES THIS MONTH

Dry summer weather is once again taking its toll on the quality of Chesapeake's tap water.

Chloride levels in the Northwest River Water Treatment Plant have been high enough in the past week to give tap water a salty taste, said public works director Amar Dwarkanath.

The chloride level Thursday was 374 parts per million - 124 parts per million above the ``taste threshold'' set by federal water quality standards.

August's widely fluctuating chloride levels spring from a lack of rain, as well as southeasterly winds blowing salt water into the Northwest River from Currituck Sound, Dwarkanath said. Chesapeake's rainfall is 7.6 inches below average for the year, he said.

Chloride levels have exceeded taste standards six times this year - all in the past week, Dwarkanath said. That's far better than Chesapeake fared in 1995, when chloride levels exceeded 250 parts per million on 131 days.

Heavy rains Wednesday night provided a much-needed 1.5 inches of water, he said. ``Hopefully this will be the end of our dry spell,'' Dwarkanath said.

The treatment plant provides tap water for residents in the Great Bridge, Greenbrier and southern areas of the city. South Norfolk and Indian River residents receive their water from Norfolk, and Western Branch residents are supplied with water from Portsmouth, according to the city department of public utilities.

A reverse-osmosis water treatment plant, scheduled to be completed in late 1998, is expected to relieve the salty water problem, said J.K. Walski, Chesapeake's assistant director of public utilities.

Elevated chloride levels may be unsavory, but they only pose a health danger to people being treated for high blood pressure who are on restricted sodium diets, said Jeffrey Goodchild, environmental health manager with the Chesapeake Health Department.

Chloride levels are not high enough yet to require dipping into the city's fresh water supply at the Aquifer Storage and Recover well, Dwarkanath said. Chesapeake stores approximately 250 million gallons of low-chloride water, about an 80-day supply. Gearing up that well, and removing manganese from the water, takes two to three weeks.

``Chlorides can fluctuate with the wind as much as 100 to 150'' parts per million, Dwarkanath said. ``If the trend is approaching 400, and looks like it's going to keep going up, then we'd look into using the well. But we don't want to set something up one day and then then pull it down the next.''

Sales people at Miller's Spring Water don't need scientific measurements to know when the water becomes salty. They just watch the customers stream in the door.

The bottled-water company is receiving 10 to 15 additional calls for service a day, said Beckie Caldwell, a customer service representative. Sales began to climb last week - about the same time public works officials observed elevated chloride levels.

So far, city water quality hasn't sent residents running to local fire stations for replacement water. The Public Works Department provides free water with lower chloride levels at three Chesapeake fire stations. Firefighters say they haven't noticed any surge in water customers.

Fire stations dispensing water include Fire Station 11 in Western Branch, located at 2040 Dock Landing Road; Fire Station 2, at 1205 Freeman Ave. in South Norfolk; and Fire Station 3, at 1826 Rokeby Ave. in Indian River.

Residents must provide their own containers and may collect water between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. daily. There is a 10-gallon limit per day per household. KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE WATER

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