As the city nears the startup date of the new radium removal plant, designs for a second facility are already underway.
The plant, which is located at Well 11 near Rochelle Township High School, is the first of its kind for Rochelle.
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ROCHELLE — As the city nears the startup date of the new radium removal plant, designs for a second facility are already underway.
The plant, which is located at Well 11 near Rochelle Township High School, is the first of its kind for Rochelle. The well had been taken out of service due to radium levels that exceeded the maximum contaminant level (MCL), prompting construction of the plant.
As the target online date of July 30 approaches, city officials are beginning the process all over again — this time for Well 12 located at Steward and Hayes Roads, which was issued a violation notice in April of this year for exceeding radium levels.
The reason for the exceeding radium levels is really not clear, according to Adam Lanning, Supt. of Water/Water Reclamation. Communities surrounding Rochelle were forced to build radium removal plants years ago by the IEPA.
Lanning explained the city of Dixon has radium removal plants at each of their five wells.
“I’ve visited numerous facilities in the area — DeKalb, Sycamore, Rockford, Dixon — they all have radium filter plants. Radium is pretty common in Northern Illinois and the East Coast, and we are not sure why,” Lanning said. “We can’t control it, it’s naturally occurring. All we can do is build filter plants to take it out. We hired Illinois State University to study it, try and find out why, and where it might be coming from. There are a couple of theories out there but they will need to be tested.”
How it works
The process of extracting radium requires several steps as the water makes its way through the plant.
From 900 feet below the surface, water at Well 11 is first directed to a pre-chlorination process to oxidize iron. Naturally occurring iron is in a dissolved form and by oxidizing the iron it turns to rust and allows it to be filtered out. The water is then directed to a tank with hydrous manganese oxide (HMO), which binds to the radium and is filtered much the same as the iron is.
After the chlorination and HMO the water goes through a sand filter — picture a giant pool filter — and then to the final step to add chlorine as well as fluoride and polyphosphate before being returned to the main supply.
Daily testing
The City of Rochelle has a total of five wells: Well 4 is located near the overpass,