Technical Advisor with Minnesota Rural Water Association Ben Oseien.
Ben Oseien
“Pick a city, it’s everywhere,” said Minnesota Rural Water Association (MRWA) Technical Advisor Ben Oseien to the Hill City City Council at a special meeting held Oct. 11. Councilors Brenda James and Dan Kingsley were not present.
Oseien was there to speak to the council concerning manganese in the city’s water supply, sewer line issues and possible remedies. He has been with MRWA for four years and previously with the city of Henning and the primary contact at the city’s water treatment plant.
“All of Minnesota is affected by this manganese issue,” said Oseien, “especially those of us in the north.” Manganese levels are not currently regulated by the state of Minnesota, however, the Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has set a voluntary standard for manganese as a guideline to assist public water systems in managing their drinking water for aesthetic considerations, such as taste, color and odor. The secondary Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for manganese is 0.05 mg/L.
Hill City volunteered to have a manganese test performed earlier this year. The results showed a higher than normal amount of the mineral found in the city’s water supply. The level of 555 mg/L of manganese was found to be in the city’s water.
Manganese is a mineral that is naturally in the environment and can be found in water, food and air. It is one of the most abundant metals on the earth’s surface. It can be found in both groundwater and surface water from natural sources or as a result of human activity such as mining and industrial discharges.
“There will probably be a standard set for it (manganese) down the road,” explained Oseien. “With that, what does the city want to do? To make it clear, the water coming out of Hill City is completely safe. If there were any safety or health concerns at all there would be no water running through the city of Hill City and that goes with any city in the city of Minnesota.”
“What takes out manganese and iron?” asked Oseien.
A Reverse Osmosis (RO) system is a water purification process that uses a semi-permeable membrane to filter out everything. “This can be quite an expensive route,” said Oseien. “You will end up with soft water, you will basically end up with nothing in the water.” The city would then add the fluoride and chlorine. When explaining the system, Oseien added, “There is quite a bit of waste, for every gallon of water, you end up with about one-third gallon of waste.” Councilor Lin Benson asked, “What happens to the waste?” The answer was that it would go to the city’s wastewater pond.
“There is also something called a sand filter, two different kinds of “media” that have an electric charge to them that will adhere to the elements and pull them out of the water so just water will filter through,” described Oseien.
Mayor Sean Lathrop asked if the city’s pond was capable of managing the waste from the filtration systems. George Casper, head of maintenance and public works said, “It probably is, without doing a study I can’t say, but it probably would be.”
Costs associated with filtration systems and funding options were discussed. As far as state funding, Oseien said he didn’t know if any would be available. Lathrop said he would like to look into remedies now instead of waiting until it possibly becomes a standard in the future.
A request for proposals was recently posted for professional engineering services for Hill City. Once the council determines the best fit, the engineer will work with the council and MRWA to plan the filtration system and a process to fund the project.
Lathrop said, “To hear that manganese is not an issue or is not something we need to worry about when the department of health sent out a letter that says (we need to worry about it). I don’t want it to be that in two years, we ignored this, and find out that (it is something to worry about).”
“To be proactive now is the moral of the story,” said Oseien.
Lathrop talked about an idea to place a water softener at city hall for resident use until a municipal filtration system is in place. Costs, maintenance, pros and cons were discussed.
“What the city of Hill City has (right now) is a system that kicks out quality drinking water,” said Oseien.
Benson pointed out that a water filtration system would not be manganese specific and would filter out other things like harmful nitrates.
Lathrop asked what a timeline would look like for a project such as this. Oseien said it would probably be a three-phase project that would potentially take three years to complete.
Lathrop suggested a community meeting concerning the water quality. Councilmembers thought it would be a good idea but wondered how many people would show up. Clerk Tami Meyer said, “You might get more (attendees) with the newsletter going out.”
Lathrop said he would like to inform the community about, “Here’s what it is, this is what we’re doing to treat it, this is what we’re looking at down the road, in the meantime we are looking at different options and if you are seriously concerned, you can look to putting in a water softener.” Oseien said, “To separate aesthetics from quality, safe drinking water, that’s the big thing. Your water might smell like rotten eggs, but yes, you can drink it.”
When speaking about the aesthetics, Oseien continued, “You can’t taste parts per billion, you can’t taste parts per million, but you can smell, you can see, that’s the thing. With this being proactive on the project, looking at a plan, looking at some new lines in the ground, those types of things will completely take away those issues and future health problems if there are any.”
Benson suggested simply putting that information into the newsletter in place of holding a public meeting.
“Hats off to all of you right now for wanting to do something,” said Oseien. “This is your town and you are going to make it so much better. Also, anybody from the public at any time, can call the department of health and ask them questions about the city of Hill City’s water.”
One resident, identified as Mary, was in attendance at the special meeting and spoke to the council about her concerns. She said, “Because I’m a nurse and I worked with public health for years, I feel personally that public health makes guidelines not just randomly, they do mean something.”
“I like that you’re proactive,” continued Mary. “I like that you are considering doing something.” She talked about concerns in serving the water to “clients.” She said, “I have a concern about the health part.” Oseien agreed, “It’s so hard to get something like that, know that it’s a recommendation right now, know that it might be a standard down the road.”
Mary asked about filter systems and asked what people could put in their homes so they wouldn’t have to wait for a city project. “As a health person, I don’t know if I want to drink water softener water just because of the salt in it, but maybe there isn’t salt in it.” Oseien replied, “There is some salinity to it.”
Oseien said there are small RO systems that can be installed in individual homes as well if residents were interested in that. He talked about charcoal filters and other residential filters that people could use.
Mary then expressed concerns about children and possible side effects of manganese that perhaps aren’t known yet.
Aitkin County Environmental Services does water testing for residents to screen for bacteria and nitrates for a fee. For more information go to www. co.aitkin.mn.us/departments/enviro-svcs/water-testing.html. Those who require Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) accreditation for testing services, contact MDH at 651-201-5324.
The difference in water in homes located next door to each other was also considered. Plumbing/pipes, etc. can also have an impact on the quality of water in a home.
The next step for the council to move forward with the project planning is to select an engineer.
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