Maple Grove Works Hard to Provide Safe, Reliable Drinking Water
The city of Maple Grove works hard to provide safe, reliable drinking water.
“People depend on water every single day, it’s our most important resource,” says Lead Water Treatment Plant Operator Joe Wokson.
He says they treat 6 million gallons of water a day in the winter and 19-20 million gallons of water in the summer.
“We feed the city of Maple Grove, all of Osseo, part of Dayton and all of Corcoran with water,” says Wokson.
Through a system of pipes, tanks, chambers, and sand, iron and manganese are removed from the water at the Maple Grove Water Treatment Plant.
“All we’re doing is polishing up the water here, taking care of the secondary standards, the manganese which causes stains in your clothing or some of the taste issues,” says Wokson.
The treatment process also adds chlorine for purposes of disinfection, fluoride to promote healthy teeth, and orthophosphate which lessens pipe corrosion.
Cleaning water at the Maple Grove Water Treatment Plant.
Water Studies
The city of Maple Grove released its 2022 Water Quality Report, showing its drinking water meets all state and federal quality requirements.
“It basically summarizes findings, what we are treating water for,” says Jay Murzyn, Utility Operations Engineer.
There’s two other studies in the pipeline.
One that looks at reducing chemical costs.
“Currently we pre-chlorinate the raw water source before it comes into the plant. The difference in going through this process is we would not pre-chlorinate because we want the existing biological organisms that are in the ground water to help remove the manganese by making the conditions perfect for that process to occur,” says Murzyn.”
The other study examines ways to address water hardness such as looking at the costs and space needed to build a water softening plant.
“We’re going through it now and we expect to have the feasibility study to review later this year and hope to take it to the council by the end of the year,” says Murzyn.
The city says it continually strives to deliver the best quality drinking water possible.
And welcomes school groups, civic groups, and the public to tour a facility they can be proud of.
“We’re happy to give tours. We do tours all year long,” says Wokson.
