City of St. Charles shuts down Elm Point Water Treatment Plant due to low levels of ammonia - KMOV4

City of St. Charles shuts down Elm Point Water Treatment Plant due to low levels of ammonia

ST. CHARLES, Mo. (KMOV) - The City of Saint Charles shut down the Elm Point Water Treatment Plant on Sunday after the level of free ammonia in the raw water decreased to a level that prevented the City from adequately disinfecting the water to Missouri standards.

The City said the naturally occurring ammonia in the raw water reacts with chlorine to produce mono-chloramines and is the primary disinfectant within the water distribution system.

City officials said different treatment techniques were used at the plant over the weekend to see if they could increase ammonia levels through different plant processes, but those processes didn’t succeed.

St. Charles is currently getting all of their drinking water from the City of St. Louis. St. Charles officials said they are working on moving the water bought from St. Louis City throughout the distribution system to avoid water shortages or lower-than-normal water pressure.

The City said it has secured an expedited delivery of liquid ammonium sulfate and is working on setting up a temporary chemical feed pump and dosing system at Elm Point Water Treatment Plant. After St. Charles officials confirm that the treatment system is achieving Missouri standards, they will restart the Elm Point Drinking Water Treatment System.

St. Charles officials said they have asked the EPA to investigate the cause of the sudden change in ammonia levels.

Ameren said that they have not received any data that indicates that any of the issues at the Elm Point Water Treatment Plant is connected to Ameren.

An Ameren spokesperson sent First Alert 4 a statement that read:

“We have not received any data or analysis indicating that a report of an issue at the Elm Point Water Treatment Plant is connected to Ameren.

“We remain focused on remediation efforts at our substation. All work has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and is done under the agency’s supervision. We are committed to continued transparency, and further information is available at //AmerenMissouri.com/StCharles.”

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