Mount Vernon News

According to Judy Scott, administrator of treatment and distribution at the city’s water/wastewater department, the first complaint on file was in 1990. That year there was just one complaint. There was another complaint in 1991 and another in 1993. In all, the department has 149 complaints stretching over 17 years. That averages out to a little more than seven complaints a year. However, the complaints seem to come in clusters rather than being spread evenly over the years.

“The complaints seem to come more frequently when there is press coverage,” Scott said. “It has been very sparse lately because there hasn’t been any coverage.”

There is a form people can fill out if they think they have this problem, and if the spotting is thought to have been caused by Mount Vernon city water. The form is a rather extensive survey, designed help the city gather information which might be valuable in finding out what is causing the problem.

“What we’re trying to do with the survey is get a feel for some consistency with conditions related to the problem,” said Scott. “If they would fill that out and send it to me, I will give it to my lab tech. He keeps a database of where they’re located and makes a map of the areas to see if there are some consistencies. That’s the value of the survey. It gets us on board with the problem and how frequently people have the problem and where the problem is.”

The survey asks questions such as the kind of fabrics involved, the colors of the fabric, how old the building where the problem occurred is, and how frequently the water heating system is maintained, among many others.

The form can be obtained at the water/wastewater department or online at www.mountvernonohio.org. On the home page there is a link in the upper left corner called EGov Link. Clicking on this link goes to a page with a link at the bottom for online docs. Clicking on this gives several choices among them FORMS. Under FORMS there is a link to the “bleaching survey.” This is a Word document and can either be printed and filled out or filled out on the computer and then printed. There is an address at the bottom of the document where it can be mailed.

The cause of the problem itself is still elusive. The city has used outside laboratories to try to pinpoint the problem, but so far nothing specific has been identified. There is some speculation the problem is not with the integrity of the water supply but with the quality of clothing, both foreign and domestic. Clothing may not be as color-fast as it used to be because of EPA regulations.

Mayor Richard Mavis said EPA regulations were changed several years ago, limiting the number of post manufacture washes a clothing manufacturer could give an article of clothing after it was dyed.

“The EPA limits rinses to eight, I think it is, instead of the 14 or 16 they used to allow,” Mavis said. “Some foreign manufacturers only do one, I think.”

The typical process for making an article of clothing color-fast was to give it those post manufacture rinses to rid the clothing of excess dye. Now consumers may find instances of overall fading of an article of clothing after the first couple of wash cycles because the excess dye was not totally rinsed out.

Terry Maloney, chief operator at the Mount vernon Water Treatment Plant, said a possible factor contributing to the problem is the quality of the fabric itself.

“I have heard,” Maloney said, “that farmers are growing a different kind of cotton for a quicker turnaround. I am not a fabric expert, but some people are thinking maybe this new type of cotton doesn’t hold the dye as well.”

One early culprit was the use of chlorine dioxide as a disinfectant in the initial phase of treatment at the water treatment plant. This, however, has been practically eliminated as a cause. The amount left in the water when it leaves the treatment plant is virtually insignificant. The usual level comes out between .25-.35mg/liter, which translates to 2.5 to 3.5 parts permillion. The EPA limit, according to Maloney is 8 parts per million.

“The highest we’ve ever gone is 4 parts per million and then only for a short time,” Maloney said.

Using a disinfectant is the only water treatment process required by the EPA. However, the Mount Vernon Water treatment Plant also softens the water and runs it through a filtering process using sand and anthracite coal before sending it to its 1 million gallon holding tank.

Anyone experiencing this water spotting problem is encouraged to fill out a bleaching survey form and return it to the city.