I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
An association of 60 residential water consumers in Tijeras plans to to install a controversial aluminum-based water treatment system that failed to live up to expectations in the town of Bernalillo.
The Green Ridge Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association plans to become the second community in the U.S. to install a system designed by Bernalillo-based ARS-USA, Association members and project engineer Andrew Robertson have told The Independent.
A pilot project of the system was successful, Association member Shirley Hughes said. “It took out our fluoride, did a wham-bang job at that. And it will also take out our arsenic, so we’ll kill two birds with one stone. It’s a pilot project, so we’re learning as we go.”
The Green Ridge water system has some of the highest arsenic and fluoride levels in the state.
The Town of Bernalillo was the first U.S. community to install the ARS-USA-designed water treatment system. But Bernalillo’s system has not consistently reduced arsenic levels and has repeatedly dumped aluminum sludge into residents’ tap water. Bernalillo Mayor Jack Torres halted plans earlier this year to install the system on other Town wells.
ARS officials have insisted their equipment is not to blame for Bernalillo’s water woes, instead pointing to filters designed by former project engineer Ramesh Narasimhan.
Narasimhan was fired in February.
ARS is designing both the aluminum-addition and filter components for the Green Ridge treatment system as a contractor for Souder, Miller & Associates, the association’s engineering firm, said Andrew Robertson, an engineer with the firm.
“We’re working on the design right now, and it’s mostly in ARS’s court,” Robertson said. “They’ll provide the internal design of the plant and we’ll do the housing and provide power. When the designs are complete, I’ll send it to the (state Environment Department’s) Drinking Water Bureau along with any reports they request. We expect them to be very stringent about it.”
ARS did not respond to The Independent’s request Wednesday for comment on the Green Ridge project.
Robertson would not discuss the details of ARS’s filtration system design, but said he believed it was sound and “plausibly” could avoid the problems Bernalillo encountered.
The state Environment Department has ordered Green Ridge to remedy its elevated arsenic and fluoride levels by the end of 2010.
“I don’t want to inflict on Green Ridge the same headaches Bernalillo’s had,” Robertson said. “I reviewed (ARS’s) pilot testing results and data and had a lot of back and forth with ARS. We’re going to make sure we’re designing everything to the best of our ability, so it’s done properly and will work.”
ARS will not be paid until the Green Ridge system has functioned successfully for 60 to 90 days, Robertson said.
“If it doesn’t work, they won’t get paid until it works,” Robertson said.
The Association or Souder, Miller will conduct the laboratory testing of the completed system’s water, using a state-certified lab, he said.
Construction of the Green Ridge facility will cost less than $500,000, paid for by state and U.S. Agriculture Department funding secured by the association, Robertson said.
“It will cost, ballpark, $4.50 to $5.00 per 1,000 gallons of treated water,” Robertson said. “That’s not cheap water. But there are folks in the East Mountains selling water for $6 per 1,000 gallons, so compared to other options, it’s competitive.”
The Green Ridge system’s recorded arsenic levels have been as high as 225 parts per billion, Robertson said — well above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s limit of 10 parts per billion for drinking water. Fluoride levels are as high as 14 parts per million, exceeding the EPA limit of 4 parts per million, Robertson said.
Fluoride levels are even more of a concern than arsenic, Robetson said.
“We’re more concerned about the fluoride because there’s more of it — a thousand times more,” Robertson said. “Chemically, fluoride is harder to remove than arsenic. So if you get rid of the fluoride, you are almost guaranteed to get rid of the arsenic.”
Although ARS is designing the system, the firm will not necessarily be selected to build it, Robertson and Environment Department Spokeswoman Marissa Stone Bardino told The Independent.
“If and when (the Environment Department) approves the design, we’ll let it out for bidding,” Robertson said. “We’re not going to sole-source it. I don’t know if anybody else can build something comparable. Maybe somebody out there can do it.”
But ARS holds a patent on its aluminum treatment equipment and is the only manufacturer of its equipment, state records show. And an Association official told The Independent ARS was already fabricating the Green Ridge system’s equipment, in apparent anticipation of winning the bid.
ARS did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment.
Bernalillo installed the system in 2007 and 2008 after Town officials were told in 2006 that pilot tests had shown the system successfully reduced arsenic levels.
