City water system burn out upcoming

The city of Graham will be performing the annual required cleaning process of the water transmission and distribution system at the beginning of June. The annual process is required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The “burn out” will clean the city operated water transmission and distribution lines and free them of biofilm growth. The city will switch from disinfecting treated water using chloramines to disinfecting using free chlorine from Monday, June 6 through Sunday, June 26.

“The only disinfectant in the treated water during this 3-week period will be free chlorine. During this time the chlorine residual will be elevated but still within TCEQ requirements and will give the water a chlorine odor,” the city public notice states. “This process will also cause any biofilm to break free and discolor the water due to our older infrastructure. We will be flushing the distribution system throughout this process. Though there will be a chlorine odor to the water, the water will remain safe.”

According to TCEQ, prolonged use of chloramine and other factors can impact the water quality, such as high temperatures or the stagnation of water in water lines, which may form growth or “persistence of organic matter within the pipes of the distribution system, which may hinder the ability to maintain an adequate disinfectant residual.”

For the full story, see the Saturday, May 28 edition of The Graham Leader.