Editor’s Note: The City of New Ulm presents a weekly column highlighting activities in different departments in the city government. Once a month the city will answer questions from readers. Questions on New Ulm city issues can be sent to comments@ci.new-ulm.mn.us.

Where does your water come from and how does the New Ulm Water Department treat the water?

Every drinking water consumer should know the answers to those two basic, but very important questions. The New Ulm Water Department pumps, on average, 2 million gallons of water a day from 15 wells. The Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources regulate the location, construction, and maintenance of all wells used to supply municipal drinking water. For instance, the Minnesota Department of Health requires that a well be built and maintained in a fashion that will minimize the possibility of any pollution contaminating each well. The well structure is built to seal out and prevent any surface water from running down into the well. After the well is drilled it is disinfected with chlorine. After each time a well is opened for cleaning or repairs, it must be disinfected again. Wells are a very safe source of drinking water since they are physically protected from most contamination.

The water from each well is pumped to our water treatment plant where it is treated to remove some minerals, to reduce any corrosiveness and to disinfect the water. The New Ulm Water Treatment Plant uses oxidizers to remove iron and manganese. Although these two compounds are not considered harmful to humans, if they are not removed at the Water Treatment Plant they would settle out in the water mains before arriving at your home. Without the treatment plants removal process, iron and manganese would cause your home’s water to be colored. This coloration would range from slight yellow to dark reddish brown to black and that would be unacceptable. We add about 1 pound of a phosphate compound to 120,000 gallons (1 million pounds) of water to reduce any corrosiveness of the water. We add about 1/3 of a pound of a fluoride compound to 120,000 gallons of water to help reduce dental decay. Finally the water is disinfected with chlorine. The amount of chlorine in your drinking water averages about 1 pound of chlorine in 120,000 gallons of water.

If you have any questions about the quality of New Ulm’s drinking water please call the New Ulm Water Department at 507.359.8279. Each year the New Ulm Water Department is required to publish the annual Consumer Confidence Report which includes information about the drinking water. The Consumer Confidence Report must include information about any violations of water regulations that may have happened in the past year as well as information about any contaminants that were found in the drinking water in the past year. You can find the Consumer Confidence Report’s for 2014 and 2015 on the City of New Ulm’s website. The 2016 report will be published on the website by June 1, 2017.