Water utility anticipates them up and running next month
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff writer
After years of worrying and planning, the City of Burlington’s radium removal facilities are about to be pushed into service.
Connie Wilson, director of the City of Burlington Department of Public Works, said after a construction meeting on Tuesday that the project is on time – and on budget.
Start-up – which is when the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will check the system as well as the contractors who built the system – is set for the first full week in December, and Wilson expects the system to be running in mid-December.
The total cost of the project for Burlington is expected to be about $2.2 million.
“Obviously, it’s great,” Wilson said. “The City of Burlington is committed to permanently reducing radium levels for our consumers, and our goal has always been to do it in the quickest and most economical manner as possible.”
The city first found out in 2008 that the wells were falling out of compliance – which means that there were elevated levels of radium (a naturally occurring substance) in the city’s wells. In order to be compliant with DNR and federal regulations, the level needs to remain below five picocuries per liter.
The city was required to install the radium removal equipment after that standard was exceeded for four consecutive tests of a well – which are done quarterly.
Three city wells were out of compliance at one point, but well No. 11 dropped back below the threshold level last year and continues to be in compliance. Well No. 9, on Weiler Road near the Bay Ridge subdivision is at 6.86 picocuries per liter as of October and well No. 10 on Karyl Street in the Bear Meadows subdivision is at 8.89 picocuries.
The city has maintained from the start that while the individual wells are out of compliance, the blending of the city’s water has kept it safe. Also, Wilson is one of several city officials who has said that the risk of getting cancer from the water was low – and an individual would have to drink an almost-impossible amount of water per day to reach the danger point.
“It’s about the same as getting struck by lightning,” Wilson said. “It’s very remote.”
The radium removal systems are going up at wells No. 9 and 10, and the city continues to test well No. 11 to ensure it is safe. The city has five total wells, with wells 7 and 8 below the threshold as well.
Wilson said 50 of 1,300 public water systems in the state are out of compliance. She said Waterford and Union Grove also have radium issues.
“Radium in the eastern part of the state runs from south of Green Bay to the state line,” Wilson said. Radium is located in deep sandstone aquifers – which is where all five of Burlington’s city wells happen to sit.
Radium gets into the water as it travels through rock and dissolves the mineral deposits.
“The good thing about radium is it can be removed,” Wilson added. “Each community must determine what is best for their situation.”
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