Osage Beach works on water quality issues on west end

Water quality on the west side of the Grand Glaize Bridge has, at times, been less than satisfactory with residents complaining of brown or dirty water. The city contracted the services of Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc., (SEH) in late 2023 for a water quality study of the Swiss wells 1, 2 and 3.
The basic determination by the Omaha-based company was that the wells have unacceptable levels of iron and manganese. Problem is, cost to remediate the issues at all three wells is just shy of $12 million, a cost the city is not willing to undertake. Cost of drilling a fourth well — estimated at about $1.8 million — is far less than fixing the problems at the Swiss wells.
The recommended treatment process for iron and manganese removal is chlorination, followed by filtration. Chlorination aids in reduction of the iron and manganese by oxidizing both materials, changing them into a state where they can be removed by filtration. Filtration with greensand media separates the oxidized iron and manganese from the water, and the inclusion of anthracite in the filter bed improves the hydraulic performance of the filter.
The wells are started and stopped in response to the water levels in a each of the elevated storage tank.
“The studies showed that the raw water coming out of Swiss 2, has the highest iron and the highest manganese load by far,” Public Works Operations Manager Zak Wilber explained to the board recently.

Wilber said the cost of $12 million for treating only Swiss well No. 2 — which is the worst of the three — can’t be justified, so it will be used only in an emergency. The high levels of manganese and iron can be removed to almost unnoticeable residuals through chlorination and filtration with the green sand media, but at a cost of $12 million.
“This keeps that water out of the system. Since we’ve done that, the dirty water calls have gone way down and we don’t get issues like we normally do,” he explained
He noted that Swiss 1 and Swiss 3 wells cannot carry the summertime load.
“One of them can’t do it by itself,” Wilber explained. “You need two pumps. If we don’t, and if we lose one of those pumps, you’ll run out of water eventually.”