From Contamination to Solution: Belleville's Water Woes

In recent years, one of the biggest local problems has been the high concentration of Nitrates in the water. According to the EPA, or Environmental Protection Agency, if drinking water has a high enough concentration of Nitrates or other contaminants, then local governments have to take action to fix that problem. The Maximum Contaminant Level the Federal Government permits is 10 ppm or 10 particles per million. That means that in a sample of one million water particles, if 10 or more of them have nitrates, then action has to be taken. Local Water has been over 10 ppm since 2021.

The city has two wells that its water comes from. They are located about 12 miles north of the City of Belleville, close to the Nebraska border. Both have high concentrations of Nitrates.

There are a couple of ways to treat water for Nitrates successfully. Some of the main ones include Biological treatment which uses microorganisms to filter the water, Ion Exchange Treatment which uses salt to absorb the Nitrates, and Reverse Osmosis, which pushes the water through a special membrane. 

The City of Belleville looked into all of these options and more to see what was best for the area, it even hired an engineering firm to look into all of the options.

These engineers tested to see if anything could be done besides building an expensive water treatment plant. They tested the surrounding area to see if new wells could be dug, but all of the samples showed similar nitrate levels.

Through lots of research, the engineers, and the City concluded that a Water Treatment Plant had to be built. They also decided that they would use the Ion Exchange Method to soften the water. The Location of the Water Treatment Plant is next to the City's Wells, 12 Miles North of town.

The main cause of high nitrates in the area is excessive use of fertilizer in agriculture. The excess fertilizer ends up in the water and stays there. The problem with Nitrates is that they are tricky to filter from water. You can’t boil nitrates out of water, that will make it worse, because they just stay in the water, but now there is less water, so the Nitrates are more concentrated.

The funding for the Water Treatment Plant will come from multiple sources. The City of Belleville is funding the cost of the Plant, and some of the cost will be offset by Rural Water District No. 2, which will buy some of the water that is treated at the Plant. The city also received a grant for just over a million dollars from the State of Kansas to help fund this project. Overall the whole project costs a little bit over $4 million.

Construction on the plant began in September of 2022 and will be finished sometime in April of this year. The treated water will go to The people of Belleville, and also the people who get water from Rural Water District number 2. The New Plant will serve a significant portion of the County. 

In Conclusion, there were a lot of Nitrates in the Area, which are bad for people and the environment. So the City decided to build an Ion Exchange Water Treatment Plant 12 miles north of town by the city’s wells. The project costs just over $4 million and the project should be done in April of this Year.

Water is something that we all need, so it is important to have good water for everyone. It is really interesting how so much can go into something as simple as water.