For over 30 years i have been inspecting and cleaning water storage tanks and towers. We inspect over 800 tanks a year with our for-profit business www.ronperrin.com.
Every week we see tanks that have never been cleaned. Everyone should be concerned about this. It is simply that many managers of smaller systems do not understand the importance of keeping water storage tanks clean. A storage tank or water tower is the last place water stops when it is on its way to your kitchen tap. Over time sediment builds up on the floor of the tank. This soft loose sediment can be an inviting habitat for a wide range of contaminates like bacteria, protozoa, and even viruses. Over time contaminates can deplete chlorine levels and put entire communities at risk. The mission of this organization is to simply show how important good housekeeping is. Keeping tanks clean eliminates the habitat that allows contaminants to grow. This reduces chlorine costs and improves the health of the community being served.
According to the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the first deaths from naegleria fowleri found in tap water from treated U.S. public drinking water systems occurred in southern Louisiana in 2011 and 2013. Now it has been found in The city of Lake Jackson, TX population 27,000.
The investigation into the death of a six year old boy on September 8, led to the detection of the brain-eating amoeba after heath officials conducted water sample tests according to a CBS News report.
Naegleria fowleri is a microscopic amoeba, or single-celled living organism commonly found in warm freshwater and soil, according to the CDC. It usually infects people when contaminated water enters the body through the nose. From there it travels to the brain and can cause a rare and debilitating disease called primary amebic meningoencephalitis.
Naegleria Fowleri image – CDC
The contamination of U.S. treated public water systems by the microbe is rare but not unheard of.
The microbe also was found in 2003 in an untreated geothermal well-supplied drinking water system in Arizona, as well as in disinfected public drinking water supplies in Australia in the 1970s and ’80s and in 2008 in Pakistan.
Tap water in 42 states is contaminated with more than 140 unregulated chemicals that lack safety standards, according to the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG’s) two-and-a-half year investigation of water suppliers’ tests of the treated tap water served to communities across the country.
In an analysis of more than 22 million tap water quality tests, most of which were required under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, EWG found that water suppliers across the U.S. detected 260 contaminants in water served to the public. One hundred forty-one (141) of these detected chemicals — more than half — are unregulated; public health officials have not set safety standards for these chemicals, even though millions drink them every day.
EWG’s analysis also found over 90 percent compliance with enforceable health standards on the part of the nation’s water utilities, showing a clear commitment to comply with safety standards once they are developed. The problem, however, is EPA’s failure to establish enforceable health standards and monitoring requirements for scores of widespread tap water contaminants. Of the 260 contaminants detected in tap water from 42 states, for only 114 has EPA set enforceable health limits (called Maximum Contaminant Levels, or MCLs), and for 5 others the Agency has set non-enforceable goals called secondary standards. (EPA 2005a). The 141 remaining chemicals without health-based limits contaminate water served to 195,257,000 people in 22,614 communities in 42 states.
To date only the State of Florida has set standards for cleaning water storage tanks. Not only should standards be set for additional contaminates I thisnk is is just as or pehaps more important that standards be set for keeping tanks clean. At this time it is just not understood how much sediment accumulates in an average water storage tank over a few years. That sediment becomes a habitat where bacteria and other contaminates can thrive.
Once in your tank bacteria can grow rapidly if it finds a place to hide from the treatment chemicals sent to destroy it.
The EWG’s report also points out that “90 percent compliance with enforceable health standards on the part of the nation’s water utilities, showing a clear commitment to comply with safety standards.” If standards are put in place giving water utilities a time table that water storage tanks should be cleaned and or inspected the water utilities will comply. For the most part they or the people controling their funds do not understand the improtance of inspection & cleaning.
Even after the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG’s) two-and-a-half year investigation of water suppliers’ tests of the treated tap water served to communities across the country. No one looked at the effects of Sediment in the water storage tanks. It apparently was not an issue, never thought of, the investigation only looked at reports of what the water utilitys found in their systems.
Keeping your water storage tanks clean may be one of the most overlooked maintenance procedures in the water industry. Out of sight and out of mind, sediment in the bottom of your water storage tanks is never seen and rarely thought of.
In 2002 The EPA Office of Ground and Drinking Water issued a paper on distribution systems titled “Health Risk From Microbial Growth and Biofilms in Drinking Water Distribution Systems”. See the link below to read the full report.
That report sited –
Hepatitis A is a primary pathogen that has been documented to survive more than four months in the sediment of a potable water storage tank.
Bacteria, protozoa, and viruses can find sediment in the floor of a water storage tank an inviting habitat.
So if the EPA knows all of this why are most water storage tanks so dirty? Like most thisngs in comes down to MONEY.
If you live in a new progressive community the likelyhood of your water storage tanks being inspected and cleaned on a regular basis is much better than if you are in a older, smaller and les affluent community. If regulations are put into place money would need to follow to allow ecanomically depresed communities to maintain there systems properly.
I have been inspecting and cleaning water storage tanks since 1992. What I have seen is the more ecanomically depresed the community is the more likely they are to need their tanks cleand. They are also more likely to drink more tap water. I would think that the more affluent a community the more bottled water is consumed. So we end up with the people who need clean tap water the most getting it the least. I have found something important to do but I cand only help a very small % on my own. The health concerns associated with sediment in the water supplies are much biger than I am. It is bigger than papers written and published by the EPA detailing the problem. It will take the general public to be concerned and perhaps a little sikened and outraged wouldnt hurt. It will take people like you and me making noise and getting attention on this subject before the proper action will be taken. The Mission of this blog is to make some noise on this subject. Let me know what you think.
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The EPA has published many reports on this subject. The work has been done to establish the problem. Its up to us to make sure something gets done about it.
Ok, Ive been saying POT-ABLE for so long I think I will just change to DRINKING WATER. My Company
Inspects drinking water tanks with a remote camera, we can identify problems with interior coatings, corrosion and sediment. Sediment in patable water storage systems is a real problem. Sediment can be a habitat for bacteria to grow. Bacteria in a citys drinking water is not usually a good thing. The more sediment in a water storage tank or tower, the more chance there is for bacteria to come into the system, find a place to get a foothold and grow into a problem.
When our inspections find deep sediment in a water storage facility we offer to clean it out using commercial divers. Divers enter the water system wearing a dry suit enclosed in their own enviroment, they are washed down with a chlorine solution meeting AWWA standards. The diver can then remove the sediment without wasting several hundred thousands or even millions of gallons of water. This cleaning process also get the tank cleaner than the traditional method of taking the facility out of service. Everything that is loose on the floor is removed. If the tank is drained the loose semi liquid sediment often compresses into a hard clay like substance making cleaning much more dificult and not nearly as effective. See more about our Inspection and tank cleaning service at www.ronperrin.com .
We are now happy to Inspect and clean Drinking Water Tanks.
l Water Tanks. 
Ron Perrin Clean Water Tank Project 