MOUNT VERNON — Mayor Richard Mavis said the administration is taking steps to solve the long-standing problem of clothing discoloration, a problem thought to be linked to city water.
He said the administration has been in communication with Arcadis, an engineering and design firm based in Akron that has done work for the city’s water and wastewater facilities in the past. The mayor said he spoke at length about the splotching problem, gave a history to an Arcadis representative and sent him a large packet of information the city has gathered over the years. Safety-Service Director Dave Glass traveled to Akron and met with representatives from the firm.
As of yet, there is no contract between the city and Arcadis. The firm wants to gather as much information as possible before deciding to conduct its own investigation. Should Arcadis decide to enter into a contract with the city, its goal would be to create a proposal the city could use to pinpoint and remedy a problem that has, to this point, remained a mystery. Mavis said the administration is hopeful Arcadis will enter into such a contract.
He said Gerry Ioannides, lab director of RD Zande, a consulting firm out of Columbus, went to great lengths to pinpoint the cause of the splotching. The mayor said that after examining city water, both before and after it had been treated, Ioannides was unable solve the mystery.
Mavis said he recently had a conversation with Bill Ferguson, a retiree from Cooper’s who is very knowledgeable about the flow of liquids. He said Ferguson told him the discoloration may be related to the way the city adds chlorine dioxide to its water. The compound, commonly used to disinfect water, may not be mixing properly with the water. There may be pockets of the chlorine dioxide that make their way to washing machines and cause the splotching in laundry loads. This might explain why, in a given load of laundry, one piece of laundry gets discolored while the rest of the load is unaffected.
The chlorine dioxide is injected in the side a 6-inch pipe, Mavis said. According to Ferguson, this might be the reason the compoud is not mixing properly. If the compound were to be injected from above, it might help with the problem. Another possible solution might be to inject the compound by means of a perforated pipe that reaches inside the 6-inch pipe. The mayor said he has presented this theory to Arcadis.
Mavis said people don’t complain about the problem as much as they once did, but there are people who sometimes bring in bleach-damaged clothing.
“That’s not the problem we have. Ours is more of a tie-dyed effect,” he said. “There’s so much confusion out there about the problem.”
Mavis said this much is known: The splotching affects dark clothing made mostly or completely of cotton.
The mayor said he wants to get the word out about the Muskingum Watershed assessment. Knox County is one of 18 counties in the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, which was created in 1933 to implement flood control and water conservation program in the Muskingum River watershed. Mavis said a series of dams was created to handle flooding but no maintenance fund was ever created.
“Here we are in 2006 and the Mohawk, Dover, Beach City and Bolivar dams are in need of hundreds of millions of dollars in maintenance,” he said.
To pay for the maintenance, Mavis said, every property owner in the district is going to be charged an assessement. The MWCD has proposed an assement of $12 for individual homeowners and farmers, but, Mavis said, it could cost businesses and local government bodies thousands.
The assessment will fund $270 million in maintenance and repairs to reservoirs and dams in the district over a 20-year period. According to a recent MWCD press release, court hearings for several thousand exceptions filed by property owners have led MWCD officials to delay the implementing the proposed assessment at least one year from its original stated goal of 2007.
Mavis said he feels the maintenance work has to be done. Mohawk dam, for instance, he said, is an area severely impacted when it rains heavily.
“This is real; it’s going to happen,” said Mavis. “You can imagine — villages, cities, corporations — this is another expense.”
The mayor said he felt many in the community may not be aware of the proposed assessment. He said he agrees with the delay, because it will give affected property owners the chance to file for exceptions.
Mavis said the East Chestnut Street improvement project is progressing. The contractor began to lay the curbing Wednesday along the closed section of the street between McKenzie and Park streets. He said he has been asked why the bricks have not yet been removed.
“The contractor has to have a solid base to run equipment on,” the mayor said. “If the bricks are removed, with all the rain we’ve had, it would be nothing but a mud bath.”
Mavis said the bricks will remain in place until the the curbs are in place.