By Mary Thurwachter
The last couple of years have brought a steady stream of residents to Town Council meetings with complaints about Lantana’s green, yellow or dingy water.
Some lamented the olive-green water that filled their swimming pools. One woman arrived to present the mayor with a cookie tin full of yellow water. Another said her Invisalign trays had turned yellowy from tap water. There was even a complaint from a pet owner who resorted to bottled water after her doggie turned up his snoot at the tap water.
Officials assured them that Lantana’s water was, despite its hue, clean.
But now, after millions have been spent to update the water treatment plant, the tide has turned, and taxpayers, including the mayor, are singing a different tune.
“My water’s clean,” said a happy Mayor Karen Lythgoe at the Sept. 23 meeting. “It’s clear,” she corrected herself. “It was always clean, now it’s clear.”
Community advocate Media Beverly of Hypoluxo Island sent a text to Town Manager Brian Raducci conveying her appreciation.
“What happened?” Beverly wrote sarcastically. “I sorely miss seeing the brown stains in my white sinks now that our water is clear. On behalf of everyone who contacted me with the good news, thank you for finally getting it done after all these years.”
The road to water clarity has been long and costly.
Eddie Crockett, public services director, says the drinking water has always been safe and that the clarity of the water is not related to the quality. It has always met all state and federal requirements.
The clarity has come as the town continues to work on the water treatment plant, which was last refurbished in 2003.
A plant filter and media replacement project began in 2021 with an original budget of $1.24 million. Supply chain issues slowed the progress. Once the project started, consultants and engineers quickly realized that it was more involved than initially anticipated. As a result, an additional $1.26 million was included in the town’s fiscal year 2023 budget for the project.
This year in February, the town approved about $2.4 million for the replacement of the filters and rehabilitating three verified vessels. “There are five vessels: two ion and three anion (negatively charged),” Crockett said in September. “One of the anion vessels is being rehabilitated and there are two of the ions that control the color of the water.”
The filters are making all the difference. The vessels that hold the filters have also been rehabilitated.
“We have all that under control, as you have witnessed,” Crockett said. “We now have three ion vessels which control the hardness and they need additional rehab.”
“It has made a marked improvement, and we have seen a marked decrease in complaints,” Raducci said.
Crockett said he hoped to have the project complete by the end of the year.
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