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.
Pilot testing with iron treatments has successfully reduced arsenic levels in Bernalillo‘s drinking water, town engineering firm Wilson & Co will report to the Town Council Monday night.
Earlier this year The Independent broke the story of how Bernalillo’s aluminum-based system, (a sole-source contract shepherded into place by a former town manager who resigned in the midst of a financial scandal) failed to curb rising arsenic levels and dumped sludge into the town’s drinking water. The town has since fired the engineer who recommended the system and decided to halt a $9 million project to expand the system’s use to other wells.
Iron treatment brings arsenic below state and federal limits
The addition of ferric chloride, a toxic iron compound widely used for arsenic treatment, to well water reduced arsenic concentrations to 1.2 parts per billion, according to Wilson & Co. project manager Bob Paulette.
That is significantly lower than the 10 parts per billion limit imposed by state and federal drinking water regulations.
Results were similar whether or not the town’s electroflocculation system was turned on during the addition of ferric chloride to the water, Paulette noted.
“We are pleased with the results thus far,” Mayor Jack Torres said Friday. “This systematic assessment will continue and we are also excited with the possibility of a reduction in operational cost.”
Town returns to arsenic after failed experiment with aluminum system
The town hired Wilson & Co after firing former project engineer Ramesh Narasimhan in February.
The malfunctioning system utilizes an aluminum electroflocculation treatment system produced by local firm ARS-USA, and a filtration system engineered by Narasimhan.
Narasimhan attempted unsuccessfully to control arsenic levels since 2008, repeatedly altering filter designs and the electrical current of the ARS flocculation system.
The ARS system sheds electrically-charged aluminum molecules into the water, where they bind to arsenic to create an aluminum-arsenic sludge that can be filtered away.
ARS officials believe components of the system engineered by Narasimhan were responsible for the system’s failure to reduce arsenic levels and for the system’s dumping of aluminum sludge into residents’ tap water.
Former town manager Stephen Jerge, who now works for Narasimhan’s wife Dale-Ann Narasimhan, blames the ARS flocculation system for the town’s water woes.
Jerge resigned last April in the midst of an unrelated financial scandal.
Narasimhan had previously blamed rising arsenic levels in the town’s well water for the $4.9 million system’s failure. But state water quality reports did not support the claim that arsenic levels are rising, The Independent reported.
Iron treatment was all it took to bring levels down
According to Wilson & Co’s corrective action plan, the only change to the system thus far has been the addition of ferric chloride to the system and experiments with the electro-flocculation system’s electrical currents.
There has not yet been a change to the filtration components of the system, according to the corrective action plan.
The new lab results will be presented to the Bernalillo Town Council at a Town Hall public meeting 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 10.
The Independent has submitted a public records request for all new lab documents.
