C Factor—Patrick “Murf” Murphy

C FACTOR Water Quality: Drinking Water, Not Just Treatment

Patrick “Murf” Murphy

President, FWPCOA

Obviously, water quality is important to all of us, whether it’s the wastewater plant effluent; the stormwater that needs to be collected and treated; or the potable water that we produce, treat, and distribute. All of these need to meet state and federal regulations.

Water quality is the general term used to describe the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of the water supply. A domestic water supply is considered to be of good quality when it’s free of disease-causing organisms and toxic chemicals, attractive in taste and appearance, the chemical composition is such that it can be distributed without undue corrosive or scale-forming effects on the water system, and it satisfies customers.

The primary responsibility of the treatment plant is to produce safe and palatable water, and the technologies are out there to make all source waters potable and perfect for our customers, but the story does not end at the entry point to the distribution system. No matter how good your treatment is, if the distribution system is not being maintained, then the customers will assume that the water is not being properly treated.

So, instead of talking about treatment technologies, which are proven and effective, I want to talk about water complaints (what we call water quality concerns; our customers aren’t complainers), because dealing with them is dealing with water quality!

50 percent of the softeners visited during water complaints look like this—or worse. Horsehair worms are 1/25 to 1/16 inches wide and can be 4 to 14 inches long. They are deadly to insects, but don’t harm humans, animals, or plants.

Customer Chemistry

Customer chemistry can transform into something more important than water chemistry, but not knowing about your water before responding to a customer’s concern can be a fatal mistake! One might have the best customer relation skills in the world, but misquoting information about your water treatment and/ or the distribution system could convince the customer that the entire water utility has no concept of what it’s doing.

A customer service employee should have the skills to interact professionally with the public. Being “Sherlock Holmes” is not necessarily needed for every complaint, but what is needed is listening and showing customers that you really care about the problem by letting them know that you are knowledgeable and in control of the water situation, that you are going to thoroughly investigate the problem, and that you are going to help them understand what they (and you) can do to solve the problem or what to do until it’s resolved.

You may not have the ultimate skills of Sherlock Holmes, but customers need to know that you are their “water investigator.”

Customer Complaints

If the complaint comes in by phone, some preliminary questions can aid the investigator in the determination of the problem, and sometimes the problem can be resolved right there on the phone! Create a form that includes the questions that should be asked of the customer at first contact, and if you’re not the person that call should have gone to, don’t take notes and email the correct person later; it’s more beneficial to the customer and the investigator to just take a few minutes to get them to the person that has a form, and will be dispatching someone right then.

Create a form to track customer complaints, which can be as simple as an Excel form or as complex as a map identifying the locations throughout the service area.

The investigator needs to follow some basic guidelines: S Do not argue with the customer. S Always be friendly and courteous. S Assure the customer that reporting the problem was the correct thing to do. S Listen carefully and calmly to the customer’s description of the problem.

S Don’t use technical language when discussing the problem. S Be honest; if an immediate answer is not available, let the customer know that. S Assure the customer the problem was or will be resolved.

You may know that the water that was produced is of good quality, but keep an open mind and actually listen to the customer; they may not know technical terms, but may give some clue that will help in the investigation.

Make observations and ask questions, such as: S Is there a water softener (and does the customer know what that is)? S Has new plumbing been installed? S Are there point-of-use devices attached to the sinks? S When was the last time the hot water tank was flushed?

Oddly enough, a lot of customers don’t realize that almost every operation and maintenance manual for water heaters suggests at least annual flushing, and some suggest a flushing twice a year.

Water Maps/Geographic Information Systems

Water maps of your distribution system are a critical component in responding to line breaks, but they can also be a life saver in addressing water complaints as well! Relying on a 45-year employee that has red-lined paper water maps that he has been editing since his date of hire to make copies for his distribution crew is outdated and unproductive. If there is any size to your system, field edits don’t get to everyone, which hinders emergency operations, planning, engineering, and locates—and eventually, executive leadership.

A geographic information system (GIS) requires accurate information; having water line sizes and connections, valves, and hydrants all identified in a computer system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, and manage the data will increase efficiency in every area.

If you can provide tablets for your operators so that they can access the GIS in the field, this will help in every situation; they even have phone apps for this now, so don’t send your people out blind. If they aren’t given that capability, and the only application can be viewed from the office, encourage the water complaint investigator to review the distribution system piping maps of the immediate area prior to making the complaint visit; making a screen shot and printing it will be helpful.

Some of the helpful things to look for are: S Is the customer on a dead-end line? S What is the location of blow-offs? S Are the lines looped? S Locate the valves. You may need to verify that the valves are open or need to flush directionally. S Locate hydrants. You may need to confirm that the hydrants aren’t just fire lines; will you be able to flush them without damage to the property or causing safety concerns?

The second water complaint. The geographic information system had inaccurate information; the stars indicate previous water complaints.

Field verification helped solve the concern.

Flushing: Where and Why

Most water providers conduct a systematic and controlled flushing program to remove sediments and stale water and to help maintain chlorine residuals throughout the system. Flushing improves the overall quality of water in the distribution system and assists in overall system maintenance. Unidirectional flushing is a routine process of cleaning the piping of the water distribution system by working in one direction

and one segment at a time, and cutting off other flows, which allows for scouring velocities of 5 to 10 feet per second or more. This is simply flushing water from a clean source through a “dirty” pipe and then out! Conventional flushing will only provide 1 to 3 feet per second, so increased velocities are going to do a better job of scouring out sediment, biofilm, corrosion products, and turberculation. Deadend water mains conveying finished drinking water shall be flushed quarterly or in accordance with a written flushing program established by the supplier of water; additionally, dead-end or other water mains conveying finished water shall be flushed as necessary whenever legitimate water quality complaints are received. The Florida Administrative Code (FAC), 62-555-350 (there is also FAC, 62-555.350[12] Continued from page 62 Florida Water Resources Journal • August 2022 61

This lil’ angel defused an angry customer. My wife was mad that I didn’t bring him home.

Continued from page 61 c), ends with “. . .all suppliers of water shall keep records documenting that their isolation valves are being exercised, and their water mains conveying finished drinking water are being flushed, in accordance with subsection 62-555.350(2).” Since all of your lines can’t be 6-inch lines, and smaller lines won’t support the function of a hydrant, we end up with blow-offs (1 to 2 inches) sticking up in a customer’s yard. At the end of a cul-de-sac, even if there is a hydrant, there is no sure guarantee that flushing it will take care of some of the customers on that line when it has a tear-drop loop (i.e., the 6 inches run almost to the end of the cul-de-sac, but then they reduce to 2 inches to angle around and “loop” it back to the 6 inches). I hate this kind of design, as it usually doesn’t have enough valving to reverse flows through the flushing point.

Sometimes the customer’s meters might be the only way to facilitate a directional flush. As for the customers, they are not left out of the flushing equation; whether it was due to typical maintenance for the water softener, water heater, or inline filters, or just not ever cleaning the aerators/strainers on their taps inside their homes, once they’ve got good, clean water in the main, they need to draw that chlorine residual through their service line and throughout their house.

There is so much more to talk about concerning customer water quality complaints. You should have a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) and field observations and know where developers and underground contractors are working (and potentially operating your valves, changing flow directions, and stirring things up) to determine if the customer has reclaimed water, etc.

Since I was speaking about customer’s internal spigots, aerators, and strainers, it’s a pretty good lead into some of the more memorable water complaints that I’ve had to take.

Water Complaint No. 1

A complaint comes in from a husband at work who called the utility billing department to talk to an operator. The water complaint operator responds in a timely manner. The wife, however, is at home and also calls the utility. She is beside herself and explains to the operator, with complete disgust, that she has a sickening feeling and a complete lack of faith in the water. She then says that this issue better get resolved today, as her husband is going to make heads roll if it isn’t!

A utility employee goes to the residence, takes a residual reading at the outside spigot, and brings back to the utility a small plastic cup of water taken from the bathroom spigot. He pours it into a clean beaker and informs me that, as the resident claimed, there are worms in the water. I tag the GIS first, finding that the resident’s location is directly off a long 12-inch water main through one of the largest communities, and the homeowner is listed as the current “city manager.”

I asked the operator to spot-check residuals on intersecting streets upstream and downstream of the customer complaint, while I checked the hydrant directly in front of the resident and the outside spigot. On speaking with the wife of the city manager, I found that the worms in the water were isolated to only the master bathroom, and observed worm goop on the surface of the spigot, dripping down into a sink. I asked the customer if I could remove the strainer while she observed so that I could show her something; she agreed, and I was able to show her that the goop was only on the outside of the strainer. Then I did my white towel trick that I use for water heater customers; there were no worms, but some flecks of metal and minerals from the heater that showed it also needed flushing.

When they ask a question, customers don’t want to hear “I don’t know” or “I wouldn’t drink that water.” They also don’t want to hear that they have worms crawling around in their house looking for water. Sometimes the truth is hard to swallow (literally!), and in this case, it would have been yucky, too.

It turns out that, to make the bathroom look like a garden, the customer placed many live plants there. She would set them outside periodically for water and sun and bring them back in later to decorate around the sink and bathtub area (which was quite large and very beautiful); this allowed for horsehair worms to hitch a ride into the house.

This internal parasite of insects grows and develops to the point where the infected insect gets thirsty and seeks out water; then the worm bursts out and continues its life cycle, leaving its dead ride behind. And though the customers were incredulous at first, and it took a couple of followup visits and a detailed letter about horsehair worms (also known as Gordian worms) and suggestions on how to avoid them in the house, in the end, it turned out well and no heads rolled!

Water Complaint No. 2

This customer called for the third time, very irate and very threatening, allegedly knowing the mayor and all of the commissioners, and says he is the best friend of the police chief’s brother (the chief was later to become the new city manager). He further states that if this complaint didn’t get resolved “it was going to be splashed on the 6 o’clock news and the city was going to pay dearly.”

Operators are unsung heroes for another reason than just staying out of the limelight and doing their jobs to make clean water for drinking and keeping lumpy water off the streets; they are normally very shy and try to avoid conflict. So, when a customer is waving an axe, looking for a head to lop off, you can’t

really expect them to be excited about going on that type of complaint visit.

A quick look at the GIS revealed that there shouldn’t be a problem in that area, as the customer was on a 6-inch looped water main around the five blocks in his area.

As I parked in front of the resident’s house, he was waiting in the doorway, repeatedly bumping his belly on the screen door, making it open and slam shut—he was loaded for bear! As I approached the door, I said, “Good morning, I’m Murphy; I can’t fix broken hearts or cracked butts, but I’m going to be here as long as it takes to fix your water.”

And then, out of the blue, a morning dove landed on my head! That seemed to neutralize his anger. He said, “okay,” shut the door, and went around to look out of the window as I started checking his water at the front spigot. I’m sure he didn’t want to see what I was doing, and I was just was trying to figure out how I rigged a bird to land on my head.

I contacted an operator to come help check valves in the area and get him to take a photo of the bird and me, since all I had were a couple of selfies. This customer had a real issue; the outside spigot was odorous and foul-tasting (the customer reported it had a metal taste), pointing to it not being an internal customer problem. We exercised and verified valves in that five-block quadrant, to find that the GIS was inaccurate, and the customer was on a single 2-inch line teed off of the 6’s and running the length of the five blocks.

By unidirectionally flushing from the beginning of the 2-inch pipe through the customers pulled meter, we were able to clear that line and provide good, clean water for the resident. We had the distribution crew later install a blow-off at the corner near the resident so that he wouldn’t be bothered with pulling his meter again.

His system was flushed quarterly, and for over 10 years now, the customer has never called back. This also helped with other customers on that line that we found had called in with concerns over the years.

Follow Up With Customers

Following up with the customer can seem to be like re-opening a can of worms, but it shows the customers that you care, it shows your fellow operators that you care, and it shows your supervisors that you care. We are guardians of water—we must care!

Besides that, sometimes you get to have feedback that is entertaining. After I sent an operator to follow up on a call I made, the customer was still happy with his water, but enjoyed telling the story that I was drinking water out of his hose and was curious if the “goat salesman” was still working at the utility or not. Complaints can be frustrating, but are a huge component of water quality.

As for the morning dove, it stayed with me through the entire water complaint, sometimes in the middle of my back when bent over digging out a valve, and when I knocked on the customer’s door to ask him to flush his internal lines to pull in the good water, he asked, “How’d you do that?” I started explaining about the lines, the valves we checked, and the flushing. He said, “No, I mean the bird.”

It really didn’t seem that strange to me until just before leaving. I tried to get the bird to jump off on a crepe myrtle in his front yard, leaning into and pulling branches around for it to climb onto. I noticed a couple sitting in their truck nearby watching this exhibition, laughing away at the display. So be it—one happy customer and two laughing. I killed three stones with one bird, so it was a good day!

Remember—let’s keep that water clean! S

Continued from page 59 R

The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) is reviewing the latest proposal for restoring the natural flow of water to the Everglades. For years a number of restoration projects have been underway to the north and east of Lake Okeechobee and Everglades National Park, and now the SFWMD governing board is taking a look at the Western Everglades Restoration Project.

Jennifer Leeds, bureau chief for restoration and planning at SFWMD recently made a presentation to the board.

“This is a project that focuses on undoing the damaging effects from some of the central and south Florida canals,” said Leeds. The goal is to restore the water flow and water levels to the Big Cypress National Preserve and the Western Everglades Ecosystem.”

The bulk of the planning calls for backfilling existing canals and razing the old Tamiami Trail.

“We’re looking at things like the removal of the Tamiami Trail and allowing that water to flow south,” said Leeds. “Think of it as a giant redistribution project. It doesn’t have storage features, but as we backfill some of these canals we’re redistributing the water to go into ecosystem areas where that water used to historically flow.”

Leeds emphasized that no water would be diverted from either the C-139 Basin or from Lake Okeechobee, and flooding should not be a concern.

“We’re dealing with existing basin waters; we’re not bringing any water in from Lake Okeechobee, so there is no connection to the lake. We’ve heard from some stakeholders that are concerned that this project is going to cause flooding in these areas, but it’s not. We’re talking inches and not feet, but those inches are spread out over a very large area.”

If the Western Everglades Restoration Project plan is approved by the governing board it will be submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for approval in August.

NEWS BEAT

R

The St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) has approved a plan to begin constructing a water pump station between Penney Farms and Camp Blanding off State Road 16 in Clay County. While the primary goal of the project is to increase recharge to the Upper Floridan aquifer, it will also improve water levels in Brooklyn and Geneva lakes.

“The Black Creek project is a result of years of collaboration among the district, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, local governments, utilities, and other interested stakeholders, like the Save Our Lake Organization,” said Mike Register, SJRWMD executive director. “The benefits of this project are far reaching and speak directly to the district’s mission of ensuring adequate water supply for future generations in Florida.”

The plan calls for water from Black Creek to be pumped through a 17-mile pipeline, which will eventually discharge into a passive treatment system aimed at removing color and minor nutrients. The water will then flow into Alligator Creek and Lake Brooklyn. Final recharge to the aquifer will occur through the lake bottom.

Depending on the water level in Black Creek, up to 10 million gallons of water per day can be diverted. This will depend on a sufficient flow of water to protect the natural resources within Black Creek.