Shreveport water plant not designed to process manganese

By BRENDA TEELE

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    SHREVEPORT, Louisiana (KTBS) — The water at the Shreveport Water and Treatment Plant is normally brown, the same color as Cross Lake until it’s filtered and treated with ozone.

“We are working diligently, and I think pretty smartly until it’s done, although we started basically from zero,” said William Daniel, director of Shreveport Water and Sewer, said Tuesday as he gave an update on ongoing efforts to clean up the water.

Daniel says it’s never been like this.

“We’re taking samples of all the tributaries coming into the lake. We are taking samples of the lake. So, we’re trying to put together a reason for that. But manganese is the most common mineral on the planet, so it could be coming from anywhere,” Daniel said.

The problem started a couple of months ago at Cross Lake. Daniel says what happened was all the sediment at the bottom of the lake came to the top and that sediment was filled with manganese. That manganese made its way into the water treatment plant at historic levels.

Daniel says, “It’s been a fight. I mentioned that the plant was not designed to process manganese.”

City crews have had to reroute several systems to treat the situation. And the water is being tested every other hour, every single day.

But there were some conditions that could not be controlled, like the varying levels of manganese coming off the lake. “Because every time the manganese levels change, both dissolved and particulate, we have to adjust the treatment process,” Daniel said.

It took 12 hours to drain the basin. Then, a crane lowered a tractor inside to help with the cleanup and sludge removal.

At the bottom of the basin, the manganese remnants look like sand that’s kind of settled at the bottom. It’s been cleaned three times in the last two months and the city says they will continue to clean the basin until the problem is resolved.

The goal is to get the manganese level under .05 mg per liter.

Daniel explains, “We’re putting out a much better quality of water even from like a week ago. We have taken it down to from .15 to .07 (mg per liter).”

There have been several complaints on social media and directly to the Department of Water and Sewer about the water.

“If anybody still does have yellow water we’ll come out and flush and flushing seems to be the solution” so the water for every Shreveport customer once again runs clear, Daniel said.

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