From the Lakes to Your Tap: An In-Depth Look at Tyler's Drinking Water

Water is the very essence of life. Clean water is something that people sometimes take for granted.

However, the process to get, safe clean drinking water is complex and requires a lot of work during each step of the process.

Most of Tyler's drinking water, 96 percent, comes from three area lakes: Lake Palestine, Lake Tyler and Lake Tyler East.

At Lake Palestine, there are three vertical pumps that pull 30 million gallons of water a day. Two of those pumps are constantly being used. The third serves as a backup.

From there, the water travels about 10 miles through a 54-inch pipe to the water treatment plant. It is the process within that plant that has caused some customers to voice frustrations.

"It's been an ongoing issue, so it hurts a lot," customer Ayanna Poole said in a 2017 interview. "Especially like driving through and seeing children playing and needing that water because they are hot."

Poole is referring to a boil water advisory issued by the city of Tyler on May 19, 2017.

Cynthia Owens, another customer affected by the boil water notice in 2017 had this to say:

"Once I get up in the morning and get up for work, I have to remember to go boil it to wash my face and brush my teeth," Owens said.

The notice was issued for a portion of Northwest Tyler due to water disinfectant levels below the minimum set by the Environmental Protection Agency and enforced by the Texas Commission on Environmental Equality.

Customers within the area bounded by Claude Street to the north, West Houston Street to the south, Vine Avenue to the east and South Peach Avenue to the west were told to boil their water prior to consumption until the notice was rescinded on May 24, 2017.

The City of Tyler also experienced an issue with its water quality in 2015. According to a letter released by Tyler Mayor Martin Heines, the city of Tyler received a notice from TCEQ informing the city that the Tyler water system had exceeded maximum contaminant levels (MCL) for haloacetic acids(HAA5), which are a byproduct of drinking water disinfection.

According to the EPA website, the established MCL for haloacetic acids is 0.060 milligrams per liter.

Tyler's compliance value in the third quarter of 2015 was 0.062, that level was .002 mg/L (2 parts per billion) above the established MCL.

The EPA website also lists 'an increased risk of cancer' as potential health effects from long term exposure above the MCL.

CBS19 spoke with Jeffrey Levin, MD, a professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, who provided more clarity about MCL.

"There's no definitive evidence that says well if you drink the water once, you're going to get cancer because really the information doesn't work that way," Levin said.

Dr. Levin also provides further clarity on how you can dissect the information on the EPA's website:

If you would like to learn more about the residual levels and national drinking water regulations, that information can be found on the Environmental Protection Agency's website.

It was the water incident in 2015, that first garnered the attention of noted environmental activist and legal clerk Erin Brockovich when she made this post on her Facebook page criticizing the city of Tyler.

Tyler, Texas... you are being lied to in a very dangerous way. Tyler Water Utilities customers received a notice of a...

On social media, customers complained about having to consult a doctor to drink the water. One user claims the quality issues only started after the city began to use Lake Palestine to supplement the water from Lake Tyler.

While the city hasn't had any water quality issues in 2018, Kate Dietz, the manager for Tyler Water Utilities, says the plant's priority is to ensure the water leaving their facility to your faucet is safe.

The treatment process begins with adding three chemicals that help gather floating particles together so they will be easier to remove.

The three chemicals are:

• Alum (a form of aluminum) - Alum pulls dirt and other organic particles to it like a magnet. It becomes heavy and sinks to the bottom of the tank.
• Powdered activated carbon - The carbon soaks up organic compounds that cause taste and odor problems. It then settles out in the sedimentation process. This is not used at the Golden Road plant because of low levels of organics in Lake Tyler.
• Lime: Lime helps the water's pH and increases the effectiveness of the alum.

These chemicals are removed during filtering, though trace amounts of those chemicals remain in the final product. Tests are conducted to make sure water leaving the plant is within acceptable ranges for those chemicals.

Once the chemicals are added, the water goes through a rapid mixer.

The sedimentation process is the longest the water must go through. The water takes nearly six hours to go through a series of pools. The water moves via gravity between different areas. Meanwhile, sediment settles at the bottom of the tanks. The sediment is removed from the tanks by a scrapper. The sediment will eventually make its way to the wastewater sanitation plant.

The final pool is called a "stilling well." The well gives the water a chance to be calm before it falls over a waterfall into an area where chlorine is added to the mix. The waterfall allows the water to collect oxygen, which improves taste.

Along with the chlorine, the plant adds a polisher that helps the filter catch micro particles.

The water flows to the top of one of eight filters. The water moves downward through a filter made of fine sand on top of 36 inches of anthracite coal, a type of carbon.

In the final step, ammonia and sodium hydroxide are added to the water that brings the water's pH to an acceptable level.

The water ends up in one of two storage tanks that hold more than 2 million gallons of water. From those tanks, the water is distributed.

For Lake Palestine's water, the water is blast with ozone as a pretreatment when it reaches the plant. The ozone helps kill off the organic matter in the lake. The ozone is used in a closed system to keep it out of the air. Any gas that makes it through the water without hitting an organic compound is collected in the system and converted into oxygen.

The plant tests the water every two hours to ensure proper levels of pH, alkalinity, chlorine and clarity.

Test for bacteria are sent to the Northeast Texas Public Health District. The plant collects between 106 and 117 bacteria samples each month in the distribution system. Every quadrant of Tyler is represented in those tests.

Texas mandates a minimum chemical residual of 0.5 mg/L Total Chlorine in state distribution systems. This is to prevent waterborne pathogens like legionnaires and cholera.

Once a year, the plant implements a chlorine conversion process when it changes its water disinfectant from chloramines to free chlorine to sanitize its water supply. The city calls the process preventative maintenance.

"It is our best option for helping to maintain that system," Dietz said. "It's just a change in disinfectant which helps clear out the distribution system of those non-harmful bacteria."

If you want to find out more about TCEQ water system regulations, you can follow this link to their website.

Water Distribution System and Aging Infrastructure

When it comes to the water distribution system, cities across the country are facing issues related to aging infrastructure, and cities in East Texas aren't exempt.

From boil water notices, to water main breaks; if you live in Texas, you've likely experienced one or the other, even both.

It's no coincidence that these issues are happening more often.

On a nationwide report conducted by civil engineers across the country every four years, the state of Texas recently scored a D+ for its Drinking Water Infrastructure on the American Society of Civil Engineers 2017 Infrastructure Report Card.

According to the organization's website, the nationwide report card for America’s Infrastructure depicts the condition and performance of American infrastructure in the familiar form of a school report card —assigning letter grades based on the physical condition and needed investments for improvement.

"It's a two-year-long process that we go through," said Travis Attanasio, a civil engineer, and Chair of the Texas section of the ASCE Infrastructure Report Card. "We first interview all the state agencies in the cities that are willing to talk, and any municipal water districts. We get the state of their infrastructure and then we grade it on a scale of A to F."

Each category, from aviation to wastewater and even drinking water is evaluated on the basis of capacity, condition, funding, future need, operation and maintenance, public safety, resilience, and innovation.

According the the 2017 document, the D+ grade received by Texas means drinking water infrastructure in the state is in 'poor to fair condition and mostly below standard' with many elements approaching the end of their service life.

"The reason for the grade is mostly because its a call to action for the future," Attanasio added.

The three biggest issues the state needs to focus on are storage, transmission and treatment.

These are concerns states and cities are facing across the country.

You've probably heard about recent issues in Austin, where historic rainfall in Central Texas prompted a boil water notice after flooding filled the lakes that feed their water supply with mud, silt and debris.

In East Texas, water supplier Craft-Turney issued a 'Do Not Use' water notice for more than 500 customers on October 3, when according to a press release, a backflow incident impacted a small portion of the system. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, who monitors and enforces water regulations in Texas suspected a fungicide entered the water supply. That notice was partially rescinded on October 12. The 'Do Not Use' order was completely lifted on October 19.

Cherokee County isn't the only part of East Texas facing issues. People from White Oak to Palestine and even in Tyler have seen issues with their drinking water. One major concern -- the more than one million miles of pipes transporting drinking water throughout the United States. Many of those pipes are nearly 100 years old.

“It would be ideal to have enough money to just go out and replace everything to the newest standard,” Attanasio added. “A lot of cities go with an asset management program, where they replace critical areas first. To replace the whole system at once would be an astronomical cost.”

As far as aging infrastructure in Tyler, where in some parts of the city 100-year-old pipes transport your tap water, Managing Director of Public Works and Utilities, Scott Taylor says one of their top priorities is getting the water system mapped.

“Follow that up with getting the condition of the water system and then put a model together,” he added. “We will have all the components we need to start a water line replacement and also help address how we operate the water distribution system.”

In addition to fixing urgent infrastructure issues, Taylor believes mapping the water system is a much-needed first step.

Mapping the entire water system will give the city a detailed view of what's happening internally and could ultimately help the city prevent and/or address issues more quickly.

Take for instance the situation that happened in Tyler in 2017 triggering a boil water notice. After an investigation of the water system, the city later found out that a backflow preventer failed.

The backflow preventer is supposed to ensure the water flows only one way - from the plant to its customers. However, due to pressure changes, water can sometimes flow backwards and seep into the main water supply line.

The situation allowed stale water from a private fire line to do just that. During that backflow incident, the water ate up residuals that ensure the water is safe for consumption.

Enprotec, a third-party consulting firm, investigated the incident. Their review ended with a call to action.

"The second time we brought Enprotec was to address the boil water notice, which was a low residual in the distribution system and they made recommendations again," Taylor said. "One of those recommendations was to create a water distribution model along with some operational things about flushing."

Enprotec Recommendations:

• Formulate and Implement Nitrification Action Plan (NAP) - More Sampling and Flushing
• Better coordinate review and collection of data for proactive response to potential issues
• Add chloramine boosting stations in critical areas of the distribution system
• Modify piping at the Golden Road Water Treatment Plant Clearwell to limit short circuiting and improve disinfection stability
• Develop a Hydraulic Water Model to identify potential trouble spots and implement projects through a Capital Improvement Plan

While there are improvements being made, those improvements take time and money. A conservative estimate says replacing the entire water distribution system (not including the water treatment plants) could cost the city about $750 million.

"We don't need to replace everything in the system, we already know that," Taylor said. "We just need to identify the areas that we need to give priority to and then get on a scheduled routine water line replacement program going forward."

The entire project could take decades, as many as 50 years to complete.

"In some areas of town, we have a 100-year-old water system and you go into the newer developments, it has less age," Taylor said. "But right now we have a hard time of knowing how the distribution system itself behaves."

However, the city has made progress since the boil water notice in 2017, which includes upgrades to both the water and sewer system.

The city invested more than $4 million for upgrades to the Golden Road Water Treatment Plant, which have been completed. Those upgrades will take effect once the current chlorine conversion process is finished.

The city also invested $3 million to construct a new booster pump station on Troup Highway, which will improve water pressure in the area it serves.

Another improvement is upgrades to two water wells that cost the city $200,000.

In May of 2018, Mayor Martin Heines told a crowded room the city will spend $100 million on 100 projects over the next decade to improve and rebuild the water and wastewater systems. Five months later, the projected price tag for those projects stands at $160 million. That price is subject to change based on the city's assessment of the water system.

According to the 2018-2019 Tyler City Budget adopted in September, the city will spend $1 million to replace water lines. The city will spend another $1 million to improve the filtration system at the Golden Road Plant.

To pay for the projects, the city approved a $1 water and wastewater base rate increase. The average customer that uses between 5,000 and 10,000 gallons per month will see and increase of $3.94 on their water bill as well as a 1.5 percent increase for volumetric rates over 25,000 gallons of consumption per month on both water and sewer services.

The city will also continue the chlorine conversion process at least once a year for the foreseeable future.

Along with those improvements, the city is taking other steps to ensure residents have safe water to drink by forming a partnership with the American Water Works Association.

The association will help Tyler Water Utilities assess and optimize water treatment processes at Lake Palestine and Golden Road Water Treatment plants.

To kick-off the partnership, TWU held its first meeting with the association on October 31.

“This assessment will fully evaluate both treatment plants, helping us to better budget and plan for upgrades and improvements,” said Taylor. “This will be very beneficial to the citizens of Tyler.”

If you'd like to learn more about the AAWA, visit their website here.

For a detailed look at the city of Tyler's Capital Improvement Plan, follow this link.