Town to take iron out of the tap

  • 2004-08-05
  • By Michelle McGagh
VENTSPILS - As many Latvians are aware, tap water leaves a lot to be desired. There are even places where it exits the faucet in chalky white swirls. Gradually, however, municipalities are tackling the most fundamental of civic services, and Ventspils, for one, recently installed new filters in its water plant.

The main culprit in Latvian water is iron. Although not entirely harmful to human health, iron makes water turbid and gives it a taste and smell that can be disagreeable. Bathing and showering in it leaves one's skin dry.
At present there is a concentration of 2.0 mg - 2.5 mg per ml of iron in Ventspils water, but to conform to EU regulations tap water should contain a maximum of 0.5 mg per ml.
In 2000, the construction of a water treatment facility was outlined in the city's water- and sewer-management development program. The project targeted the problems in drinking water, the sewerage network and the treatment of wastewater in Latvia's leading port town.
In its most recent phase last month, filtering sand was added to the city's water purification filters by YIT, a Finnish construction company. This layer of sand, the key component in purifying drinking water, will hold the iron particles and prevent them from getting into the water.
Capacitywise, the filters will be capable of handling 20,000 cubic meters of water per day.
The utilization of a sand layer also means that Udeka, the municipal water utility implementing the project, is close to finishing the project on time.
Patrick Reilly of Barry Consultants, the independent advisers to Udeka, says, "We are two-thirds along in the project. The actual construction of the plant is completed. Now it's just a matter of finishing the pipe work and the electronics - connecting the plant so it runs."
Udeka will also be testing the water regularly to make sure it is at optimum levels.
Another benefit of the project, of course, will be that Ventspils residents will have much less iron in their laundry.
"When there is a high amount of iron in the water, white clothes you put into the laundry don't come out white - they come out a gray color," says Reilly.
Replacement of the city's water conduits and the cleaning-up of the water pipe network mean that the standard of Ventspils' drinking water supply has greatly improved.
However, it will not be until the completion of the iron removal plant at the end of this year that the water supply will comply with the EU normative.
Although the 12,000 cubic meters of water supplied to Ventspils daily from Lake Puze is clean as sanitary zones have been developed around the lake, it is the 17,000 cubic meters of water from the 25 artesian wells in the area, which were created by boring deep into the earth until water is reached and then letting the internal pressure create a fountain, that contains a high iron content.
The project funded by the EU prestructural IPSA fund and costing 6.5 million euros from a budget of 10.85 million euros, will demand little maintenance in the future, with the central control center needing only two or three people to monitor and operate it, plus a few call-outs for repairs, explains Reilly.