MIDVALE (Tusco TV) - Village officials are continuing to assess their options for reducing the amount of manganese in the town’s water.

TnT Engineering President Terry Gellner met with Midvale’s public affairs board earlier this week to go over several different options for building a pressurized filtration system. He says it’s the simplest and most cost-effective way to bring down the manganese levels, which have been running three to five times higher than the allowable threshold.  

"The village has been identified to have magnesium levels of 0.15 to 0.27 mg/liter, and the state wants a level no higher than 0.05 mg per liter. So what we’re doing in this study is we’re looking at different ways to remove that, and the easiest way to do it is to put in a pressure filter," he says.

Gellner says Midvale would also need a way to process and dispose of the waste, either with on-site holding tanks or a backwash recycling system. He says the high-end estimate for the entire system would be around $2.1-million (which could be offset with a fee increase of $10 to $12 a month for the town’s 855 water customers). 

"And that includes the equipment, the building, the backwash system, design, construction and contingency money," he says. "That would be an impact to the users of $10 to $12 per month." 

Board President Randy Cadle says the board will meet with Gellner again in a week or to go over the available financing options. He says the goal is to have a plan ready to present to council before the end of December.  

TUSCO TV