A consultant hired by the city of Joplin will soon do a preliminary test of water discharged by the Turkey Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant to test for zinc and cadmium contamination.
A test is to be conducted to see if the city can persuade the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to make allowances for the limitations it wants to set on zinc and cadmium contamination of water released from the plant as part of a renewed operating permit for the plant.
The city’s former public works director, Nick Heatherly, said in March the city needed to resolve the issue of whether Turkey Creek water itself adds to the city’s discharge levels of the metals.
Public works officials for the city believe the contamination comes from the inflow and infiltration of surface water into the sanitary sewer system.
As part of the city’s disaster recovery, it also has been examining sewer lines for unused connections left open by buildings and houses destroyed by the 2011 tornado and closing them.
Those open connections allow more seepage of rainwater into the sewer system.
The city also has completed $26 million worth of construction at the Turkey Creek plant as well as the city’s second treatment plant, Shoal Creek Wastewater Plant.
But agency officials agreed at a meeting with city officials in April to allow the city to commission water testing to determine the natural occurring levels of contamination in the water upstream from the sewer plant before finalizing the permit, according to city documents.
The initial test will be done by collecting treated water discharged by the plant that is not mixed with creek water from upstream.
Water discharge About 7 million gallons of water are treated at the Turkey Creek plant on a normal day, but that amount can increase to 15 million to 20 million gallons during heavy rains.