Wisconsin Water Utilities Extend Chlorination

From July 28, 1992 (update #14)

The cities of Port Washington and Milwaukee are spending a total of $2 million this summer to extend chlorination lines to their municipal drinking water intakes to protect them from zebra mussels. The city of Port Washington recently spent around $200,000 to extend chlorination lines to the mouth of its two water intakes, according water superintendent Dave Ewig. The lines became operational on July 8. An inspection of one of the intake structures during construction found "only a couple of zebra mussels," Ewig said. The City of Milwaukee is now implementing a March recommendation to spend $1.8 million to extend its water utility chemical feed systems to the mouth of each of its two water intakes, according to Walter Powers, engineer-in-charge of the Water Engineering Division for the Milwaukee Water Works. Chemical feed lines for both of the Milwaukee utility's intakes are being extended from the shoreline to the intake cribs in Lake Michigan. Powers said the feed lines should be operational sometime in August. Powers said the utility began to design and install an expanded chemical feed system after inspections last fall turned up zebra mussels in portions of intake lines that reach depths up to 150 feet (46 m), which precluded other zebra mussel control options.

ID: 19920728-6.

The Zebra Mussel Update was a 4- to 8-page quarterly national newsletter published by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute from May 1990 through May 1997. The ZMU documented the spread of the zebra mussel -- an exotic nuisance mussel -- through North America's freshwater environments, especially the Great Lakes, and on efforts to control it.