Mapleturn Utilities, Inc.

Serving the community needs daily

Summer Newsletter 2019

CCR

The annual Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) is enclosed with this letter.  I highly recommend that you read through the report and contact us if you have questions.  You will see that that Mapleturn has had no violations, that your drinking water is safe and meets all federal and state drinking water requirements. 

Best Tasting Water Award

Along these same lines, it was announced at the annual picnic that Mapleturn has won the Best Tasting Water competition at the district convention of the Alliance of Indiana Rural Water Association.  By winning at the district level we will be competing at the annual state convention in Ft. Wayne this fall.  If we were to win at the state level; we would move on to the National Convention in Washington DC to compete for the Best Tasting Water in the Nation.  This is our second award.  Last year we won at the annual convention of the Rural Water Association held in Indianapolis.  This is a big deal and as a community we should be very proud.

Meter Installation

Our intention is to install another 100 electronic meters this summer.  This will bring us to a total of 300 installed so far.  This is also half of our customers.  Our intention is to focus on the Ramsgate/Stafford area, Windsor Place, Barking Woods and Woodland Point.  These meters are going to be more of a challenge because most of these are inside your homes.  They may be in your basement, crawl space or in the garage.  We will be contacting you to set up an appointment time so that we can have access to the meter.

I&I

Over the next several years we will be focusing on inflow and infiltration (I&I) of water into our sewer system.  We will be starting in Foxcliff North for a couple of reasons.  First, North’s sewer lines are mostly clay tile.  These tiles are notorious for having water infiltration through the joints.  The second reason is that many of these lines are very deep.  If we were to have a collapse of one of these lines we would need to contract out the work to those that have the larger equipment, which is very expensive.  As we find problem areas we can use a process where the inside of the pipe is lined with an epoxy.  This not only seals the leaks in the pipe but also strengthens it so that we can avoid those breakages.

Feminine Hygiene and other Waste Products

Nothing, other than waste and toilet paper should ever go down the toilet.  Items such as feminine hygiene products (of any type), baby wipes, Q tips or disposable cleaning wipes cause serious damage in the sewer system.  Not only will they clog the drain lines but they quite often get tangled in the cutting heads of the lift station pumps.  When this happens we need to pull the pump to get the blockage out or replace it if it burns up the pump.  Lately, we have had an inordinate number of lift station high water alarms.  I understand that these products are marketed as being bio-degradable; and they may be in the landfill.  All we are asking that you just send them directly to the landfill and avoid the middleman.  Thank you.

Human activity, Stormwater and Ecology

Because of the excessive amount of rain we have had this spring I realized how difficult it has been for a homeowner to fertilize their lawn.  You know:  Can I get this squeezed in before it rains again, or, do I need to do it again because it has rained so much?  I can see these questions being asked.  This then got me thinking about Mapleturn’s responsibility to do what we can to protect our watershed and our groundwater supply.  Likewise, because of my background, I see the issues with the lakes throughout the community.  Fertilizer has three primary components; Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium.  These are the numbers represented on the bag, in that order.  An established lawn only needs nitrogen to green it up.  The other two components are used by the plants for root growth, cell division and flowering.  And, as a rule, there is enough phosphorus present in the soil already that it is really not needed at all.  This brings me back to the lakes.  Phosphorus is the limiting factor in lakes for algae growth.

Under natural conditions phosphorus is typically scarce in water.  In the late 1960s scientists discovered phosphorus contributed by human activity to be a major cause of excessive algae growth and degraded lake water quality.

                                                Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

You may consider using a fertilizer that has only nitrogen as its component i.e. 28-0-0.

David passed his exam

David Ice has successfully passed his certification exam and now is officially a Certified Operator for Wastewater.  Yea!