Salt Lake treatment plants working to keep drinking water safe despite dirt from flooding - KUTV 2News

Salt Lake treatment plants working to keep drinking water safe despite dirt from flooding | KUTV

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Officials with the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities said their systems are ready to deliver clean water to residents despite the mud and silt coming down off the mountains.

2News went to the Big Cottonwood Creek water treatment plant Thursday to ask if there were any imminent water quality problems due to spring runoff.

For now, officials said, no.

Several creeks leading into the public utility’s facilities were expected to reach flood capacity soon. When that happens, keeping the water free of any dirt will be a trickier task – but systems were in place to keep clean drinking water flowing to residents.

The Big Cottonwood Water Treatment Facility has been cleaning about 25 million gallons of water per day, even though the creek has not reached flood stage.

When it does, all that extra dirt and silt could be a problem if the levels get too high.

“When it gets to a certain amount, we have a hard time treating it - so, that’s always being monitored,” said facility manager Russ Rank.

On bad days, the incoming, untreated water could be around 600 times dirtier than the law would allow.

Ranck said the darkly orange and muddy looking untreated water 2News saw in one of their rooms was about 100 times dirtier than drinking water should be.

He said paddles under the water keeping things churning were not currently visible because of the dirty water.

“We can’t see them because of the turbidity, but they are turning in four different sections,” Rank said.

They’ve added a chemical called ferric sulfate that binds the dirt together so it clumps and sinks to the bottom, making the water on top clear.

So, what happens when the water is too dirty to clean? They simply don’t clean it. They shut the plant down and let all of the water make its way to the Great Salt Lake.

“(It goes) through a series of pipes, both on the surface and that go underground, and then reach out to the Jordan River,” said Salt Lake City Water Quality and Treatment administrator Teresa Gray.

She said there have been times over the years when the plant had to close because floods sent too much dirt. When that happens, they get drinking water from another plant or from the wells in the system.

They have not predicted the runoff water will be too dirty to clean, but Gray said they’re ready for it.

“We’re preparing for that. Honestly, with the flows, we haven’t seen those yet. We’re predicting that we’re going to have a lot more as the flows come off (the mountains) within the next couple of weeks,” she said.

Gray said anyone across the state who does develop cloudy or dirty water coming out of their taps should call their local water district.

CLARIFICATION: An initial push alert for this story said floods were affecting drinking water. It should have said floods and debris were affecting the processing of drinking water – but that no water has been deemed unsafe for use. It also should have said the Big Cottonwood Creek facility has closed at times over the years due to flooding, but not recently.