Water treatment provides challenge

LOWELL - A Beaver Water District administrator said Thursday that the biggest challenge ahead for the district and its treatment system is walking a tightrope between what he called “conflicting” regulations.

Bob Morgan, environmental quality manager for the district, said federal guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency have greatly reduced themargin for error when using chlorine to disinfect raw water from Beaver Lake.

If too much chlorine is used, treatment plant operators face punitive measures from the EPA. Too little chlorine, however, can fail to adequately disinfect drinking water supplies, resulting in short-term negative health effects.

“Maintaining that is going to be a long-term effort,” Morgan said.

The discussion cameat the end of a “green-bag lunch,” one of a series of public education events organized by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions. The “Putting Green to Work” lunches are intended to promote sustainable building practices and other forms of conservation by encouraging business leaders in the state to share success stories, said Andrea Hopkins, business assistance manager with the Environmental Quality department.

Over the course of about two hours, Morgan, plant manager Stacy Cheevers and education chief Dot Neely, outlined the primary tasks of Beaver Water District and some of the unique approaches to building and operating the treatment plant in Lowell that put it in competition for the Environmental Quality Department’s 2012 Environmental Stewardship Award.

Beaver Water District provides water to about 300,000 people in Northwest Arkansas, Morgan said, with a capacity to treat and distribute as much as 120 million gallons of water each day. Morgan said demand on the plant is currently well under that capacity, with users consuming an average of between 45 and 50 million gallons a day.

Beaver Lake, the district’s primary source of raw water, holds nearly two million acre feet of water, only about 9 percent of which is used for the area’s drinking water supply. Most of it - about 78 percent - is used for power generation, creating hydroelectric power as water is released from Beaver Dam and into the White River.

Morgan discussed a number of projects the district has initiated, including “Green Infrastructure Planning: Linking Arkansas Communities.” The district worked with the Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association and the Arkansas Forestry Commission to create a “green infrastructure network map” designed to help urban planners throughout Northwest Arkansas incorporate natural conservation while planning for growth.

That project won a 2011 National Green Infrastructure Implementation Award from the Conservation Fund.

Morgan also discussed many design details of the treatment plant’s administrative center, a LEED gold-certified building that utilizes technologies including pervious concrete pavement and a natural grass paving system to eliminate most of the stormwater runoff associated with paved parking lots.

Environmental Quality Department spokesperson Katherine Benenati said the next “green-bag lunch” is scheduled for Aug. 29, and will feature a presentation from engineering consultant CH2M Hill. The location hasn’t been decided.