New technology on tap to clear Casselman's murky water, mayor says

The mayor of Casselman, Ont., says she'd like to see apermanent solution to the community's water problems, butapilot project will have to do for now.

For years, the community's drinking water has seen rising levels of the trace mineral manganese in spring and summer.

Manganese gives water a brown colour, making it unappealing to drink and discolouring laundry and pipes. Like other minerals, taking too much of it can be bad for people's health.

The problem in Casselman has been getting worse as the water source, the South Nation River, is releasing higher levels of the easily soluble mineral.

Despite assurancesby authorities of the water's potability, residents have told CBCit's like drinking what looks like swamp water.

• The science behind manganese in drinking water

"This historical high I believe has happened twice in the past 10years,"CasselmanMayor Genevive Lajoietold CBC Radio's Ottawa Morningon Tuesday.

"But I do anticipate it's going to increase in frequency because of climate change, and our water sources are just drying up. Also with this really warm winter, we don't have ice that will melt to slow down the process here."

I'm determined to solve this problem and find a solution for the long term.- Casselman Mayor Genevive Lajoie

Lajoie said the ultimate solutionwould be to tapinto nearby Clarence-Rockland's water supply, which comes from the Ottawa River, but the cost of doing that is estimated in the tens of millions of dollars and rising.

For now, the community is embarking on a pilot project to change the way it treats its water, Lajoiesaid.

"The current chemicals are not treating the water [in summer]as well as we could. It's also done manually, so we don't have technology that's monitoring it on an ongoing basis and treating it as it's coming through," she explained.

'Anything's possible'

Enter water engineer Bill Dallala, who presented both a study and a plan tomunicipalcouncil in September.

According to Lajoie, Dallala proposed using technology to treat the water as it enters the system rather than manually testing it.

"The treatment will occur more quickly," said Lajoie, who hopes residents will see an improvement come springwhen the pilot kicks in.

Dallala's approach will be to install a chlorine dioxide generator as an oxidizerthat will more quickly disinfect and reduce "turbidity levels," according to his report.

Dallala's work has been done in conjunction with the Ontario Clean Water Agency, the provincial authority that operates and maintains Casselman'swater and waste water treatment facility.

Lajoie is also promising to come up with a communication plan to keep residents informed of any developments, good or bad.

Ultimately, she wants the province to come through with enough funding to pipe in a different source of drinking water.

"Anything's possible. I'm determined to solve this problem and find a solution for the long term," Lajoie said.