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Dr. Chad Seidel, president of Corona Environmental Consulting, and Mike Harris, director of Water and sewer Operations, spoke to the Beaumont city council about clearing up brown water issues.

Dr. Chad Seidel, president of Corona Environmental Consulting, spoke to the Beaumont city council about clearing up brown water issues.

Beaumont residents are a step closer to not having brown water.

The Beaumont city council heard a presentation from the president of Corona Environmental Consulting LLC, Dr. Chad Seidel on his company’s assessment of the municipal water system in response to the discoloration. Almost 750 complaints were made on the issue in the month of June 2021 alone.

Seidel emphasized that the contaminants iron and manganese do not pose a health risk, and the concerns are aesthetic in nature. Unfortunately, this isn’t likely to be a quick fix.

“While we may want a singular solution, there really isn't a singular kind of recommendation that will immediately resolve these concerns,” Seidel said. “It isn't a snap of the fingers that makes this happen. However, a comprehensive and cohesive strategy is both needed and is being implemented to address these concerns.”

Corona suggested that if the city implements chlorine dioxide at the Pine Street Surface Water Treatment Plant to remove manganese and continually monitors the manganese levels at that facility as well as at the Loeb Groundwater treatment plant, that would go a long way towards eliminating brown water. Corona recommended the city also invest in more frequent cleanings of filters, routine inspections and cleanings of all treated water storage tanks, and the development and implementation of a unidirectional flushing plan across the whole water system.

According to Director of Public Works and Technology Services Bart Bartkowiak, implementing chlorine dioxide would cost an estimated $1.3 million.

“We've had some preliminary discussions with Freese and Nichols,” he said. “Now that we have the final report, we'll engage them for engineering services and refine that number more explicitly to see what it will cost.”

At-large councilmember Randy Felschau wanted to know if adding chlorine dioxide would pose any health risks to residents. Seidel said that chlorine dioxide is actually a routinely used chemical for clearing up water discoloration issues nationwide.

“There are countless numbers of water utilities across the country and a significant number in the state of Texas that employ the use of chlorine dioxide exactly for this purpose,” he said. “It is regulated by both the state regulators for water systems as well as the US EPA, and within those boundaries, (it is) absolutely safe, and in fact, would be a tremendous benefit to customers.”

As for the other recommendations Corona made, half of the water storage tanks in the city have been inspected and cleaned and the city is in the process of cleaning the other half. Bartkowiak said that process will be finished by the end of this fiscal year. The water filters will not add additional cost to the city budget, but they will have to be cleaned more frequently once the city adds chlorine dioxide to the water.

Director of Water and Sewer Operations Mike Harris took the stand to talk about the unidirectional flushing plans. He said that an in-house program has been developed on a small scale, but that the city is going to need to contract a consulting firm or engineering firm to develop a plan for the entire system.

“The biggest thing we need to determine is what’s the actual direction the water flows from, which direction it flows to,” he said. “That way we can determine exactly the most efficient way to directionally flush -- which valves to turn off, which valves to turn on.”

He declined to provide an estimated timeline on when all of this would come to fruition,but said the next step is to work with Bartkowiak and the public works department to make proposals to present to the council and get bids.

“It's going to be a long-term program,” interim city manager Chris Boone said. “It's gonna take many years and a good amount of investment to help it improve.”

Rachel Kersey is the local government reporter for The Beaumont Enterprise.