The issue of hardness remains a topic for Waterloo’s water customers 10 weeks after the city went online with its new treatment facility, though there appears to be a “light at the end of the pipe.”

An update was provided during Monday’s meeting of Waterloo’s water and sewer committee on the second floor of City Hall, which also offered a platform for one angry resident to voice her displeasure in person.

As previously reported, Waterloo’s new water treatment facility went online Dec. 18, ending a 30-year contract with Illinois American Water. Waterloo’s contract with Illinois American officially ended Oct. 31, but Illinois American agreed to continue supplying water until the city had its new plant online.

On Jan. 1, water rates from Illinois American would have been increased by 30 percent. 

The new state-of-the-art treatment facility located in Valmeyer features a trio of wells off Bluff Road that drill into the Mississippi Aquifer, working one at a time throughout the day.

The water softening portion of this plant was built as scheduled but an unforeseen issue arose when sediment in water coming into the wells clogged some of the injectors.

In order to resolve that issue, the city ordered new equipment – known as a solids separator – designed specifically for this plant in order to catch that sediment before it reached the water softening process.

The installation of this equipment was approved by the IEPA and is “performing as it should,” city officials said, but during testing last month it was noted a small amount of sediment was still passing through.

Out of caution, the city held up its softening process for further review.

Waterloo Public Works Director JR Landeck has clarified that this sandy-like material is still filtered out by the filtration process at the water plant, therefore it does not make it to the finished water consumed by residents.

On Monday night, Landeck offered a positive update. 

“I’m starting to see the light at the end of the pipe,” he said during the committee meeting. “We have identified which well most of the material is coming from, which is Well No. 2. The well drilling company and our design team continues to actively review solutions to this issue.  The new softening distributors have been installed in Reactor No. 1.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, Landeck said “the testing has begun” and the water softening process will finally begin soon. 

“I do not have a timeline yet, but it will take 3-5 days for the softened water to make its way through the system and to our customers,” he said. “The solids separator will be installed on Reactor No. 2, along with the new softening  distributors for Reactor No. 2. I plan to provide an update once the softening has begun and the design team and contractor are satisfied with the softening levels,” he said. “Stay tuned.”

Landeck stressed that Well No. 2 has been taken off-line for now since it was determined to be the source of the issue.

“We are operating from wells 1 and 3,” he said.

With the city using about 1 million gallons of water daily – the plant has a processing capacity of 3.2 million gallons per day – there is plenty of redundancy and room for growth built in. 

The city has two softening reactors at its plant, one serving as a backup. 

Hardness levels in the 290-300 range have been reported for Waterloo since the new water plant went online, with the ideal range somewhere between 150-200. 

The final hardness reading for Waterloo water when it was supplied by Illinois American was 223, though it fluctuated widely under that provider.

Waterloo Mayor Stan Darter has said the city’s water is tested every day and has never failed a quality test with the IEPA. 

“There’s nothing wrong with the water except hardness. I drink it every day,” Darter said recently. 

Still, Monday’s committee meeting saw one unhappy resident addressing city officials.

Mary Cates McNeight brought as evidence some of her dishes and laundry to City Hall for the meeting as a concerned citizen, saying she is having issues with her dishwasher, hot water heater, and washing machine due to water hardness.

“I’m having to wash my dishes multiple times,” she said. “My whites are being yellowed, not cleaned. This is insanity! Something needs to be done now about this hard water issue.”

As chairman of the water and sewer committee, Ward 3 Alderman Kyle Buettner asked McNeight to provide her address and contact information to stay in touch with the city on her issues. 

He also assured McNeight the hardness issue is being treated as a top priority.

“We’ll get the softness figured out and in the long term, we’ll have softer water and we’ll be able to offer it at a cheaper rate for each resident of Waterloo,” Buettner said.