December 5, 2008
Albuquerque Journal
River on Tap
By Sean Olson, Journal Staff WriterAfter years of work and millions of dollars, the tap to the Rio Grande will open today.
The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority flips the switch on its $385 million San Juan-Chama Drinking Water project, bringing treated river water directly into the homes of most Albuquerque-area residents.
The water — which will be blended with aquifer water — is expected to reach all homes within 30 days.
Despite the muddy look of Rio Grande water as it flows through Albuquerque, the opening of the new water treatment plant guarantees that the water will be safe and clean by the time it reaches your spigot, University of New Mexico water resource director Bruce Thomson said.
"The authority has designed a very robust treatment system. ... It will remove anything you can throw at it," Thomson said.
There will be some new organisms, debris and other organics in the river that weren't an issue when the city was pumping its drinking water from the aquifer, water authority water manager John Stomp said.
But constant testing has shown that the new treatment plant can deal with everything harmful in the river, he said.
Standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be exceeded, Stomp said.
"I can't think of even one potential (standard) that won't be beat by 50 percent or more," he said.
Plans to tap the river for drinking water started more than a decade ago after surveys revealed that the aquifer under Albuquerque — and the source of its water — was being drained twice as fast as it recharges.
The city adopted a strategy for using the river water and implemented the first of seven dedicated rate increases to pay for construction of the diversion facility and treatment plant.
The water is diverted from the Rio Grande near Alameda Boulevard and piped to the treatment plant. Treated river and aquifer water are blended and piped to homes. For the first year, the blend will be 25 percent river water.
The water authority took a hit in public confidence on the project in January when several packaged water bottles containing the river water — created to allow the public to sample the treated water — were found to contain a fungus floating in the water.
Government and private testing showed that the fungus could not have entered the water until after it had left the water authority's control. Less than 10 bottles were found to have the fungus out of nearly a million produced.
One group in Albuquerque, the Agua es Vida Action Team, wants the project halted before water is released into the city's system.
The group claims EPA standards are behind the times and particles in the river can still be harmful, Agua es Vida co-coordinator Janet Greenwald said.
Small radioactive particles — called radionuclides — and pharmaceutical remnants released into the water upstream are among the main concerns, Greenwald said. The group is calling for the project to be delayed until higher standards are met. Agua es Vida will hold a news conference today.
"Here we are, about to drink the river, and nothing has been done to implement those standards," she said.
Thomson said the concerns are unwarranted, adding that radionuclide and pharmaceutical levels in the river near Albuquerque were very low. Even if some higher levels were to be found, the treatment system would take care of them, he said.
"(The plant is) just extraordinarily good. It's extraordinarily high performance," he said.
Stomp said testing of the river has found no trace of pharmaceuticals. The plant is designed to take care of them anyway, he said.
And the other microbes in the river don't stand a chance during the treatment process, Stomp said.
"Ozone is the best disinfectant known to man," Stomp said. "And we're hitting it with ozone twice."
The river water also has its upsides, he said. Other harmful contaminants, such as arsenic and radionuclides, have much smaller concentrations in the river than the aquifer, Stomp said.