• Water woes
    Photo by Robin Champion
  • Water woes
  • Water woes
    Photos by Katie Boyce
  • Water woes
    Photo by Karie Bray-Mitchell

Water woes

City of Atlanta water passes safety standards

Over the past few weeks, residents of Atlanta were alarmed to discover discoloration in their tap water to varying degrees of severity depending on location. Many took to social media outlets like Facebook to voice their concerns on the matter of whether or not the water was safe to consume, with some insisting that the water was bad enough that they needed to purchase bottled water to use for drinking and cooking.

The City of Atlanta receives water from Lake Wright Patman through a purchase contract with the City of Texarkana, TX. The lake is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir formed on the Sulphur River in Bowie and Cass counties by Wright Patman dam.

“The water is and always has been safe to consume,” said Atlanta City Manager, David Cockrell. “The issue is the clarity of the water.” The city was issued a violation of secondary clarity issues due to high levels of manganese in the water.

According to information provided by the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the water discoloration is caused by a naturally-occurring mineral called manganese found in and around Lake Wright Patman, and as the water grew higher in elevation, it was exposed to more of the mineral. The water then traveled to Graphic Packaging Mill where a process was done on the water to make sure it kept their paper white. When the water came back to Atlanta and the manganese was hit with chlorine—a treatment to the water required by TCEQ—this caused the discoloration.

“The process that we receive the water is the way we receive the water. We do not treat water in Atlanta other than to chlorinate it and we are required by our TCEQ permit to chlorinate it,” Cockrell said.

A similar process will be done in Texarkana. In a press release issued by Texarkana Water Utilities (TWU), they announced a temporary change to their method of disinfecting their drinking water. TWU normally uses chloramine, a mixture of ammonia and chlorine, to disinfect water. However, beginning July 19 through the next eight weeks, TWU will be using chlorine only to disinfect their water. This is a widely used preventative maintenance procedure for municipal water systems in both Texas and Arkansas. As a result of the use of chlorine only, users might notice a temporary change in their water, including a slight “chlorine odor” and discoloration. This should lessen in a couple of weeks and should not affect the safety of the water supply. This process, however, only affects Texarkana and does not affect Atlanta or surrounding areas.

In the Annual Water Quality Report for 2020 which tested the city water between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of 2020, the City of Atlanta received no violations for contaminated water and met or exceeded all federal and state requirements. According to Public Works Director, Bobby Washington, Atlanta water is safe to drink despite its discoloration. “What you’ll see in the water is the standard iron and manganese which is not a health hazard, but just discolors the water and it’s actually taken out through a filtering process where they treat the water the way they normally treat the water,” he said. “The levels of manganese were so high where it was not taking those suspended particles out of the water and that’s what everybody will see floating in the water. When you treat it, you filter that out, but when you introduce chlorine to it, it reacts and it brings it back. With the levels getting as high as they were, and them doing the treatment process like they were doing, they weren’t taking enough of it out to keep it suspended where people weren’t seeing it in their water. The water is safe to drink; it just doesn’t look like it is.”

On July 20, the Journal-Sun conducted an independent water safety test using a sample provided by a local resident and found the water met or exceeded the standards of water safety.

Certain water lines and their ground tanks have been flushed by the city where they think it will help while TCEQ has been assisting the plant operators at the Graphic Packaging Mill. The water is tested daily to assure compliance with numerous safety standards. If residents have any questions or concerns, they can contact Becky Allen, Water Utility Representative, at (903) 796-7153, ext. 114.

Cass County Now

306 West Main St
Atlanta, TX 75551
903.796.7133