CWS: Post-Debby discoloration in water improving

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Charleston Water System said water discoloration caused by Tropical Storm Debby was decreasing on Thursday.

“Tropical Storm Debby brought unprecedented amounts of rain to the Lowcountry, and that water really stirred up a lot of the loose material that’s in the swamps, that’s in the forest. Those leaves and those twigs that have been breaking down for a long time, and as the water ran over them, those items released iron and manganese,” explained Mike Saia, the Public Information Administrator for Charleston Water System.

Saia said the minerals made their way into the utility’s water sources, the Bushy Park reservoir and the Edisto River, and were to blame for the strong yellowish, light brown color customers saw in their water this week.

Despite the discoloration, he said the water is still safe to drink and use.

“We do our very best to get it out. We use something called alum, which you’ll find in the spice aisle at your grocery store. And we fluctuate between our two sources, but what we’ve been able to do is reduce a whole lot of it,” Saia told News 2.

According to Saia, 90% of CWS drinking water comes from Bushy Park, while the other 10% is from the Edisto River. This week, he said they are mostly taking from the river because it had less iron and manganese levels.

As of Thursday, CWS reported a 70% decrease in the discoloration.

“We’re hopeful that we see the elimination of this color by some point later this week or into the weekend,” Saia shared.

Meanwhile, Mount Pleasant Waterworks announced this week that they are temporarily cutting back on their CWS intake because of the discoloration. General Manager Allan Clum said they normally purchase 6 million gallons of water from CWS per day, but reduced the intake to 1 million for the time being.

“Immediately after we recognized the concerns, we upped the production of our own water, reverse osmosis water, that we can produce in-house. Increased the production of that water and decreased our Charleston Water intake,” Clum told News 2.

The general manager said Mount Pleasant Waterworks customers may notice a reduction in pressure during the transition.