Field Office Compliance - Assistance

Assistance ID - 134791
Des Moines Water Works - 310338211
9966 Maffitt Lake Dr Cumming, IA 50061
Dallas County

FO 5

Report
File Name File Type File Date Note
Comments
6/17/2025 Re: CIWW Press Release Gastineau, Janet <[email protected]> Mon, Jun 16, 3:08?PM (19 hours ago) to Corey, Ted, Anne, Lori, Carmily, DNR, Tammie, Jason I talked with Nathan Casey this afternoon and he provided the following updates: Gallery is creeping up at the Fleur WTP (over 11 mg/L); the Des Moines River is in use to supplement source water. Both river sources are currently around 15 mg/L nitrate. He uses the Des Moines River because he can pump less of it to supplement the gallery source. The DM River has had a lot of toxins the last 3-4 weeks but they are removing to non-detectable levels. The softening process at Fleur is responsible for that:) Although both rivers are dropping and the public continues to respond to the mandatory conservation, production doesn't foresee anything changing, but they'll know more in a few days. Often at the end of June, nitrate levels drop off rapidly, but we have more rain in the forecast...Nathan does believe the extreme conditions may be behind us. If any of you monitor the USGS gages, Nathan said the DM River is usually reliable, but the Van Meter gage usually reads low but represents trends, in comparison to their raw water monitoring. He was made aware of the Governor's issuance of a statement this afternoon and will keep me informed if things worsen. I am conducting a sanitary survey on Friday at the McMullen WTP. On Fri, Jun 13, 2025 at 9:42?AM Gastineau, Janet <[email protected]> wrote: I called Nathan Casey with DMWW and here is some information he shared with me. The good news is customers have responded to the mandatory conservation and treated water flows have slowed down. In fact, at the Fleur plant they are currently only using gallery water. The Raccoon and DM River's nitrate levels came up fast this week. All 7 nitrate vessels (10 MGD) are in use with a maxed out blend of 33 percent. The voluntary conservation put out Wednesday this week was not well responded to and with nitrate levels up in the raw water, they felt there was no choice but to go with mandatory conservation. Filter effluent has been as high as 13.3 mg/L, but that's not a record for the Fleur plant. 9.2 mg/L is their highest compliance value thus far. McMullen plant is blending with as much Maffitt Reservoir water as possible and their levels are still at 9.62 mg/L nitrate, for example, but they can blend that down with the ASR at McMullen. Ankeny is now using both ASR and Waukee also started up theirs, which has given DMWW some relief. Xenia is trying to find ways to conserve also. West Des Moines did some valve turning to allow at least one of their pressure zones (normally fed by DMWW) to be fed from WDMWW, which also gives relief. Grimes, although part of CIWW, does not currently have a connection to or from the larger distribution systems, as a whole. Taking it one day at a time, but if the publics' response holds, they believe they can keep it below the MCL. He did apologize for not contacting the Iowa DNR. Tony Bigger is on call this weekend. On Thu, Jun 12, 2025 at 4:18?PM Mccoid, Corey <[email protected]> wrote: Lori, Polk County EMA, CIWW and Polk County Health just had a press conference to restrict water use in Polk County. CIWW Issues Lawn Watering Ban Effective Immediately. CIWW Press release https://www.ciww.gov/news-1/ciww-issues-lawn-watering-ban-effective-immediately KCCI https://www.kcci.com/article/iowa-lawn-watering-banned-central-iowa-water-works-nitrates-water-reduction/65049103 JANET GASTINEAU
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