The Brown County Water Improvement District met in its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
One big item on their agenda was to hear from the engineering firm Frees and Nichols regarding a solution to the lack of operation at the districts new Micro-filtration water treatment plant.
According to Freese and Nichols representative Mike Morrision, the new plant began operation in January of 2009 and worked perfectly for 22 days, but stopped working properly after that.
The problem according to the engineering firm was that the chlorine and ammonia mixture that is required to come in contact with the water was not within standards.
Morrision said, “For some time we have been experiencing difficulty in achieving the disinfection levels that we need to achieve out of the new membrane treatment plant.”
The plant was originally designed to introduce these disinfecting agents after the water goes through the micro-filtration membranes. This technique has not proved effective.
The new plan to correct this problem as proposed by Freese and Nichols is to introduce the disinfecting agents into the water before it enters the membranes in hopes to achieve the proper disinfection levels. This is similar to the way water is treated in the existing water treatment plant.
Board members were concerned about additional costs associated with modifications to the treatment plant for this change, but Frees and Nichols agreed to help with the additional costs associated with the modifications.
They hope to have the modifications made to the new water treatment plant by November to begin testing.
In other action and discussions
-The board of directors approved a 5 year surface lease renewal of 17 acres where the Jim Ned empties into Lake Brownwood. The lease is for $800.
-The board authorized reinstatement of a 2″ waterline connection to Francisco Castaneda on FM 3254.
-The board renewed a service agreement with Harbridge Consulting Group for the districts retirement plan. The cost is $4300 per year.
-The board also discussed the possible sale of two generators owned by the water district that have not been used in over 15 years.
