Suez investigates water issues in City and Alpena Twp.

Authorities say residents can rest easy knowing that PFC contaminants are not of concern within the municipal drinking water supply for the city of Alpena and Alpena Township.
After testing revealed concerning levels of contaminants in groundwater near the CRTC base, authorities contacted Suez water and sewage, the contracted operator of municipal water to look into the problem.
“We were contacted by personnel from CRTC and told about it because there could potentially be contamination of the Thunder Bay River, and contamination of the river would mean contamination of our source water which is Thunder Bay,” says Suez utilities manager, Mike Glowinski.
In order to ensure the safety of drinking water, Suez voluntarily collected samples of both the raw water, coming into the treatment plant, as well as tap water going out.
Glowinski says results for both came back non–detectable.
“We can safely say that contaminant is not of concern in the municipal drinking water supply for Alpena city proper and Alpena Township,” says Glowinski.
Over the years Suez has enacted further steps to treat water, including granular-activated carbon, atop sand filters, which were used to remove taste and odor issues in the past.
“As it turns out the activated carbon is a good treatment method, one of the best treatment methods for removing the contaminants that were speaking of.” Residents can rest easy knowing contaminants are not coming in at a detectable level, and there is also a secondary level of treatment that would be affective at removing contaminants if levels were to rise.

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