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Council plans blind tap water taste test

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 12:31 PM PDT

By Amy M.E. Fischer
afischer@tdn.com

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The Longview City Council will take its own version of the Pepsi Challenge on Thursday -- except instead of soft drinks, they'll compare the taste of Cowlitz River water to Mint Farm Industrial Park well water.

During the blind taste test of five water samples, council members, Cowlitz PUD commissioners and Beacon Hill Sewer District commissioners will rank taste and odor.

Two samples will be treated city water -- one drawn from a tap and one directly from the water treatment plant. Two will be from the Mint Farm's wells, each filtered using a different method. One sample will be bottled water, said Public Worlds Director Jeff Cameron.

The taste test could play a role in a crucial decision the City Council is expected to making in the next couple months.

The city's Fisher's Lane water treatment plant on the Cowlitz River is wearing out, and the City Council is faced with the choice of spending millions to upgrade the 64-year-old facility or building a new one. City staff members have proposed drilling wells at the Mint Farm to tap into the aquifer about 300 feet below the ground surface.

Taste could be a problem, because in the city's early days, residents complained about the taste of water the city drew from wells, according to Cameron, saying he's heard those reports from former longtime public works officials. He did not know the location or depth of those wells.

However, "taste is not the only issue here," City Manager Bob Gregory emphasized Tuesday. "It's safe, it's potable, it's drinkable. ... It gets back to the reliability of the other system."

Specific cost estimates for both projects will be provided to the council at a May 8 water-supply workshop, said Gregory, adding that he hopes the council will make its decision shortly thereafter.

"We are really hoping that we have answered all the outstanding questions and issues they have and get direction at that workshop, or are close to getting direction, anyway," he said.

The Cowlitz PUD is invited to the tasting because it owns 14 percent of Longview's water system. The PUD has contracted with the Beacon Hill Sewer District to run the PUD's portion of the water system and has the option of acquiring it, Cameron said.

A limited amount of water samples will be available Thursday for the public to taste between 6:30 and 7 p.m. in the second-floor training room. Tasting ends when the 7 p.m. council meeting begins.

The Longview City Council's tie-breaking vote on whether to approve using $22,500 in city funds for a fenced-in dog park has been postponed until the April 10 meeting.

Councilman Ken Botero was absent at the March 13 meeting, when his peers were deadlocked 3-3 on the dog park issue. The council decided to hold another vote about funding the dog park at its next meeting (which is Thursday) but decided it wanted more time to gather information first, City Manager Bob Gregory said Tuesday.

Thursday's council meeting is at 7 p.m. at City Hall, at the corner of 15th Avenue and Broadway.

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ggmo wrote on Mar 26, 2008 7:52 AM:

" Hmm...Let's see. This one has a whiff of chlorine, must be the one from the river with the spring runoff and all........And this one, must be from the Mint Farm, as I detect the flowery flavor of DIOXIN from the mills..... "

ggmo wrote on Mar 26, 2008 7:57 AM:

" One thing's for sure. If the city goes ahead with wells from the Mint Farm, the bottled water suppliers are gonna have a heyday in 'ol LV. "

ggmo wrote on Mar 26, 2008 8:24 AM:

" I have no doubt that drillers could find an aquifer underneath the sewer lagoon also, but is where we want their water coming from??? "

Mr. Bastinado wrote on Mar 26, 2008 8:45 AM:

" Water wells at the Mint Farm...Yeah, there's a real knee-slapper. How long's it gonna be after they dig the wells and install the equipment will they find that the nastys that were dumped (er, um, accidently spilled) over the decades from the mills are leaching into the water supply. Of course, the good people of Longview will be expected to foot the bill to clean up the land to make the new system work. Maybe it might be wiser for the city council to have water trucked in from Love Canal or Hanford. "

the past haunts us wrote on Mar 26, 2008 10:05 AM:

" I have only two words to comment about Mint Farm aquifer well water... Radacovich Landfill "

Wow wrote on Mar 26, 2008 10:50 AM:

" You people must not understand the tidal influence in that area. anything dumped by the mills is long gone in the Columbia by now. A few years ago if I lived downriver I might worry. I have a well and wouldn't trade for a lifetime of free surface water full of antibiotics and steroids. Read the PI if you want to know what's in the water your drinking right now. "

MrBee wrote on Mar 26, 2008 11:12 AM:

" What we are experiencing is called going through the motions. It is like other meetings to get the community's input (think LOWE'S), what will it accomplish? All we need to do is "read" between the lines of what they have said in the past. Put your money on Mint Vally wells. We have City Manager Bob "head in the sand" Gregory leading the way. When it takes a outsider to tell him you need "signs" and he thinks what a great idea! EVERY organization needs new blood and new leadership to keep the "ship" afloat. Longview is sinking just look! "

What Up wrote on Mar 26, 2008 12:17 PM:

" Im not saying Im for or against the wells but the water table in the mint farm flows from North to South.In other words anything under the ground surface from the mills flows away from the Mint Farm. Just a thought. "

Mike wrote on Mar 26, 2008 2:26 PM:

" Eureka, a taste test! I think we should then get a hundred Longviewites randomly selected to do the same test. If the mint farm comes out on top get those drills going quick. "

98 Grad wrote on Mar 26, 2008 4:03 PM:

" Do we realize that there are one if not two superfund sites within ¼ mile of where these wells are to be drilled. Major hazardous substances of concern include polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mercury, aluminum and other metals associated with bauxite, cyanide, fluoride, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from electrical equipment. I do not know how to taste for these toxins but I have a feeling they will have water reports from multiple analytical labs for all to read. "

kelso wrote on Mar 26, 2008 4:08 PM:

" Whatever comes out from under the Mint Farm has got to be better than the water from Kelso... "

msfans wrote on Mar 26, 2008 4:30 PM:

" Here is my suggesstion, Let the residents of Longview put a well and a 30ft wind generator on their property and we wouldn't need the utility depts any more. Problems solved. "

98 Grad wrote on Mar 26, 2008 4:39 PM:

" Check out the EPA Superfund sites close to the potential wells.
http://www.cqs.com/super_wa.htm
What is a superfund? A Superfund is the name given to the environmental program established to address abandoned hazardous waste sites. It is also the name of the fund established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, as amended (CERCLA statute, CERCLA overview). This law was enacted in the wake of the discovery of toxic waste dumps such as Love Canal and Times Beach in the 1970s. It allows the EPA to clean up such sites and to compel responsible parties to perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-lead cleanups. "

Tazer baby wrote on Mar 26, 2008 5:50 PM:

" Your Mother reads the P.I. "

Andy1 wrote on Mar 26, 2008 6:41 PM:

" Even contaminants as toxic and long lived as Benzene can be cleaned out of the water through bioxidation processes or distillation. It's not a question of source, it's a question of quality of facility. I for one hope they go all out and build a state of the art facility that will serve the community and it's expected growth for another 70 years. "

To all the mutants..lol wrote on Mar 26, 2008 9:12 PM:

" Go taste Vancouver water and Portland water..it is horrible compared to Lonview and Kelso water...we got it good compared to them "

bluE wrote on Mar 27, 2008 2:09 AM:

" this just goes to show that anything could make longview water taste good, but come on with the industrial wasteland well water, it was bad enough they were raising cattle there back in the day, get real folks, these mills have been dumping their nastyness into our air water and earth for years, now you all are gonna bath cook and drink it? i would like to see tdn do some real journalism here, investigate this please, and do it honestly. this sounds really crazy to me, i read about this kinda thing happening in the third world, has longview got that bad? "

bluE wrote on Mar 27, 2008 2:34 AM:

" hey 98grad thanx, i now have a whole bunch of new topics to research. maybe tdn can do the same. "

Kelso wrote on Mar 27, 2008 7:14 AM:

" The water smells like chlorine and when your pregnant, your sence of smell is a whole lot stronger. "

Cat wrote on Mar 27, 2008 12:22 PM:

" I don't really understand the need to dig a bunch of wells near a protected wetland when all of the old cruddy pipes around town are going to make all the water taste lousy anyway. If you have bad water now you'll have bad water later no matter where the source is. "

to kelso wrote on Mar 27, 2008 7:07 PM:

" dito "