Regulator Lifts Eight-Year Old Administrative Order Against City, Eight Months After Installation of Ion Exchange Treatment Plant

Fulfillment of Consent Decree Re Nitrates, Arsenic, and Uranium in Drinking Water Keeps Fines at $225,000, and Avoids Over $45 Million

The utility director here reports the end of a 15-year old nitrate contamination problem, that increased in scope over the years to also include uranium and arsenic, through the installation of a multi-contaminant-removal, ion exchange treatment plant for the city's drinking water. The new plant, serving a 6.8 mgd facility, started up in early 2006, and provided simultaneous removal of all three contaminants. A 1998 Administrative Order from the Nebraska Dept. of Health & Human Services was lifted eight months after the treatment plant startup.

"The long term upheaval is hopefully all behind us now," said Jesse Dutcher, utility director for McCook, NE. "When a local regulator tells you that something needs to be fixed, you don't want to wait until it becomes a federal problem. We had the U.S. Attorney General and U.S. EPA involved here, in addition to the Attorney General for Nebraska and the Nebraska Dept. of Environmental Quality, and it was very hard on the community politically as it struggled to find a solution to the contamination issue."

The ion exchange treatment option, selected by a joint venture of W Design of McCook, NE and Jacobson Helgoth Consultants of Denver, CO, was specified by the firm for design and installation by The Tonka Equipment Co. of Plymouth, MN, utilizing ion exchange (IX) resins from The Purolite Company of Bala Cynwyd, PA.

more...