Campbell keeps water clean

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

McMinnville water plant operator Nolan Campbell is one of four plant employees ensuring water quality in the city. (Amy Satterwhite photo)

From the looks of it, you would never guess the murky water of the Barren Fork River could be turned into crystal clear drinking water.

But that’s exactly what employees like water plant operator Nolan Campbell and three others do on a daily basis.

The city pumps its water from the river to its water treatment plant on Bell Street, where there is a lengthy chemical process involved in getting it to the tap.

Campbell and others have special state licenses to treat water at the plant and Campbell, a 4-1/2 year city employee, earned his license with a combination of work experience, including a couple of years working at West Warren Utility District, and schooling.

“It’s a lot of chemistry and a lot of math – a lot more math than I cared for, but there’s a lot of it,” he said of the school.

At the plant, mud is the ultimate enemy, because extra precautions have to be taken on days when the river floods its banks and the river is especially muddy.

If the water is not treated properly at the beginning of the process, the mud can filter through to another 600,000-gallon holding area. If that happens, the whole pit has to be drained. Campbell said it doesn’t happen often, but when it does, no one is happy.

“It has a reaction with the particles in the water,” he said of the first phases of water treatment, which involves poly-aluminum chloride to separate the big particles out first.

“They attract and they fall to the bottom. That’s how we get it clear enough to filter. Then we add fluoride and post-chlorine after the filtration process and it goes from the filters to the clear well and then from the clear well to the system.”

That’s the simple explanation of a multi-stage process that involves treating 1.7 million gallons of water a day. Campbell said primarily, constant vigilance is in order.

“It’s something that you’ve really got to be alert and aware of what’s going on,” he said of ensuring a safe water supply. “It doesn’t take long to get in trouble here with the water. And it’s a huge responsibility, because you have people’s lives in your hands,” he added.