Columbia Water and Light address Integrated Resource Management Inc. findings

The Water and Light Advisory Board of Columbia Water and Light mentioned that they will respond to an email from Integrated Resource Management, Inc. that said the aquifer from where Columbia obtains their drinking water is unsafe.

Robert Bowcock, with Integrated Resource Management, Inc., said in the email that Columbia Drinking Water Consumers have reported to Erin Brockovich, a clean water activist, that there was “an excessive dosing of free chlorine which, impacts water quality for approximately 90 days each year.”

Bowcock said that his highest concern is that the aquifer is directly under both the Missouri River and the McBaine Bottoms Constructed Wetlands.

Deidra McClendon, a laboratory supervisor for Columbia Water and Light, said the water in Columbia is tested by the Department of Natural Resources monthly and by the laboratory she supervises quarterly.

McClendon said that the recommendations Bowcock suggested are too costly to use. She said that the Granular Activated Carbon treatment system for water requires a lot of heat, and if not changed often, can create a build up of more bacteria.

McClendon said that Columbia Water and Light uses chloramine, a mixture of chlorine and ammonia, to treat the water and get rid of bacteria.

The issue that Erin Brockovich mentioned was that Columbia Water and Light uses chlorine without ammonia during the summer months for too long.

McClendon said that they do that because the water gets too warm during the summer and the ammonia can attract more bacteria.

Co-founders of COMO Water Coalition made a statement that they agree with what Brockovich and Bowcock have said about Columbia’s water situation.