Savannah issued a widespread ‘boil water’ alert Friday after there was a malfunction at its surface water treatment plant, which processes about 50 million gallons of water daily from Abercorn Creek, a tributary of the Savannah River.
The problem stemmed from a “malfunction in the hose that delivers the alum to the treatment process,” Mayor Van Johnson said Tuesday at his weekly news conference.
Alum, or aluminum sulfate, is a coagulant used to help clear the water of suspended particles. Too little of it and the water becomes cloudy and harder to disinfect. It was that cloudiness — or turbidity — that triggered the boil water notice, as required by state regulations. A partial all clear came Saturday when subsequent bacterial tests came back clean. Tests confirmed Sunday morning that the remaining areas under the advisory showed no presence of coliform bacteria and the water was safe to drink.
The weekend’s boil notice was more widespread than Savannah water employees could recall ever issuing before. It came as the city is cutting back its use of the relatively pure aquifer water and relying more on river water…