New city water downgraded to 7-10 grains

There are new developments with the City of Morris water situation. You ought to pay close attention to this. I regret having to write again on the subject. This I did not expect. I now learn that the state has required an adjustment in the "new" city water to where it actually isn't as good as at first. Yes, sounds extremely weird. The expert with whom I consulted on the subject kind of "got into the weeds" with the explanation, but there is an explanation. 

At first the city was proud to say the new water was at five grains of hardness. My source this morning actually said the initial rating was 2-5 grains, this being even better of course. The lower numbers mean less hard. So why the monkeying around with the quality? City residents have been given supposed information to go on. This leads to important decisions with your home, like whether you need a softener at all. 

I tried getting answers by going right to City of Morris people: the manager, the mayor and a councilman. That was back when the understanding was that five grains was the new rating. It wasn't even clear to me this was good enough. A check of background info on the web revealed that five grains is "moderately hard." Sounds less than ideal. 

I was intimidated into getting a new softener by the notorious new "law" the city council passed. Passing a law means you're pretty serious. People my age learned we had to take the seat belt requirement seriously - no excuses. 

One interpretation was that the front page newspaper article made the law seem more heavy-handed than it was intended to be. 

Let's get down to brass tacks here: this morning I learned that the state has called for an adjustment in how our city water treatment plant is working. I didn't hear this directly from a city person but from someone with proper professional credentials. No, the new city water is not 2-5 grains, or five grains even, but now it is set at 7-10 grains. This is bizarre. There could be serious consequences for people all over town, like those people who just decided to go softener-less. We have been so jerked around on this. Why? Couldn't the city have backed off from passing a law until we could get things sorted out a little? 

Eco Water told me that at the time I contacted them, my residence had "perfect water." So the idea should be to keep it that way, the Eco Water person told me. Sounds wise. Prior to calling them I wasn't sure if our old Kinetico was adjustable. It seemed not to be, but I'm no pro on this. Eco Water said a new softener was called for, and I'm not going to dispute this. And now that we learn the new city water has been downgraded to 7-10 grains of hardness, I would say I simply must have a functioning softener. 

I'll have to call Eco Water again for a service visit. It appears there are questions about my new softener - salt too coarse? I don't know. For a while, I didn't care that much because I figured the new city water was good enough anyway. I could in effect shrug, but I'd regret having spent money on the new softener. I was in fact regretting that greatly. Now I feel much better in the sense that I see the need for a softener. Now I just have to make sure my new device is working. The level of salt appears not to have moved since installation in December. 

I'd like to recommend Eco Water. If my current issues work out I'll do that. Of course, what damage might have been done, if I have not had treated water for ten months? Well, like I said, if the new city water was as good as city spokespeople said it was, I wasn't going to worry. Now I'm worried. 

How bad is water at 7-10 grains of hardness? Well it's pretty concerning. I should be profoundly upset. Here's what the web reveals about water at 7-11: "Hard water is packed with minerals at 7-11 gpg, and you likely deal with crusty faucets and pipes and possibly rings on your porcelain from excess iron." 

Prior to the page 1 Stevens County Times article on the "law," I never thought about my softener, other than to add salt when needed. And, I had "perfect" water. What could be better? Who wouldn't be extremely bitter now? This whole thing erupted in my face in early December and it affected my personal celebration of Christmas. Is there lawsuit potential here? A class-action lawsuit among City of Morris residents? Doesn't sound far-fetched to me at all. 

Kevin Wohlers (kmrs-kkok)

Kevin Wohlers was glib with me back on December 9, breezily telling me the new water seemed fundamentally fine: "Hey Brian, what we're telling people is that the city is providing soft water. It is softened to five grams [he meant grains] of hardness." Kevin invited me to express views at an upcoming City Council meeting. Why the f--k would I want to take the time and trouble to do that? Water? I had a perfect situation before, and now the city is f--king with me. And the five grains thing didn't even hold up? It's modified now, due to the state's intervention, to the extent that our decisions might have been different. 

The gist of the "downgrading" appears to be this: water that is too good or too pure causes problems if going through lead pipes. I guess lessons were gained from the Flint MI situation. I was told this morning I have copper pipes.

The city manager: Back in December he appeared to be clashing with at least one local water treatment company. The company had advised me not to go with the new city water minus any additional treatment. Blaine Hill directly contradicted that. This was the notorious email where his first statement was: "I'm not sure what to tell you." So much for instilling confidence or faith. And that's fine if the city council hadn't stuck its neck out passing a "law" re. water softeners. Leave us the f--k alone, would you? Blaine wrote to me on December 6: "If the Eco Water person told you that you couldn't get by without a new softener, that was not correct. It was a sales pitch." 

He continued: "Two city council members have disconnected theirs." Looks like those two had better be aware that the new city water has been downgraded to 7-10 grains, seemingly quite bad news. It's not hard to lose one's temper when city government is coming right into my home and being so intrusive, and then giving such questionable information. It might be scandalous. 

My source this morning says the whole chloride emission thing might be trumped up or bogus to begin with. If there's a chloride problem, he said, to what extent can we be sure it's from Morris as opposed to another town, say Elbow Lake? He said it's a case of "good intentions" by government but with questionable execution of a plan. This is hardly unprecedented for government, eh? 

I wish I could have just been left alone on this whole thing. Maybe we can't fight city hall but we could at least vote for all non-incumbent candidates for city council, and push for a thorough flushing out of city staff. But the damage may well have been done. It may end up being a profound tragedy for Morris. Blaine said "I don't write newspaper articles." So, he's implying the paper was off-base with its splashy front page story. I have not seen the Morris paper since late March. I used to see it at places like the library and church.

My podcast for today: I invite you to visit my "Morris Mojo" podcast where today the theme is "commonality of experiences." That's because I talk about walking through an unfamiliar cemetery. Though it's unfamiliar, we look at the names and feel a bonding with the deceased souls because of our "commonality of experiences." Please click on permalink:

https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Commonality-of-experiences-ejvjbc

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com