Haines Borough officials say a “perfect storm” of factors recently forced the municipality to supplement its regular water source with salty well water for five days, a switch that drew complaints from residents and businesses.
The Crystal Cathedrals well system piped water into the borough’s distribution system which typically draws from Lily Lake and the Piedad hillside.
With a large storage tank atop Tower Road offline due to a scheduled roof replacement and the Piedad system cut off due to construction of a new treatment system, the water treatment plant was overworked and experienced mechanical problems, said public facilities director Brad Ryan.
That combination of circumstances led the borough to tap into the Crystal Cathedrals well water.
“It’s not our preferred water source. It is full of salt. It’s just not nice water. It’s safe to drink, but it’s just not pleasant,” Ryan said.
Bradford said “you can definitely tell the difference,” as the Crystal Cathedrals water has 460 parts per million of total dissolved solids, compared to Lily Lake’s 70 ppm and Piedad’s 120 ppm. The Environmental Protection Agency’s limit is 500 ppm.
Complaints started immediately. “People were quick to notice it,” Ryan said.
Torrey Larson, a waitress at the Klondike, said water there looked and tasted strange. “I would be pouring water to serve to people and it was coming out cloudy,” she said.
Haines Brewing Company owners Paul Wheeler and Jeanne Kitayama said the salt in Crystal Cathedrals water affects the flavor of their beer. The brewery treats city water for other additives – like chlorine – but it can’t deal with the salt, Kitayama said. “It makes a difference in our beer.”
Kitayama said Wheeler noticed he wasn’t getting the conversion he wanted on a batch of beer brewed with the Crystal Cathedrals water. When the two met with borough staff to discuss the issue on Monday, Kitayama said she was frustrated to learn the cruise ships were still receiving water when the borough was in such a pinch to provide quality water to locals.
Bradford said a cruise ship bought water from the borough on June 14, though he doesn’t yet know how much. Cruise ships tend to take about 100,000 to 150,000 gallons of water, he said.
“It’s disturbing to think that when the water is low, the cruise ship receives a higher quality water than the community,” Kitayama wrote in an email to Bradford, Ryan and manager Bill Seward. “And, we are having a difficult time thinking that the cruise ship’s water is a priority over the small amount of water that we need to maintain the quality and reputation that we have for our beer. For a small business like ours, this has a very large impact.”
Kitayama and Wheeler requested the borough notify them via phone and email whenever the brewery’s water source is being changed from its usual source, but Seward said due to limited staffing, he would post a notification on the borough’s website.
Bradford said the borough already was drawing well water before the cruise ship arrived, and that the ship also likely received some of the salty water. “I’m sure that the cruise ship ended up getting some Cathedral water, too,” he said.
The last time the borough had to tap into the Crystal Cathedrals system was six or seven years ago when a water line broke, Bradford added. “It’s been awhile. The only time we ever do it is when we have a crisis.”
Facilities director Ryan said the borough is waiting on a Department of Environmental Conservation permit to replace the Tower Road tank’s roof. That tank usually holds 300,000 gallons of water for the borough to draw on.
A new treatment system is being built at the Piedad site due to DEC regulations, and that system will hopefully be back online by the end of July, Ryan said.
In 2010, the Haines Borough purchased the Crystal Cathedrals system for $370,000 from local developer John Floreske. It’s a back-up resource that can be pumped into the borough’s system during emergencies or periods of high demand.