Bottled Water Advisory for the City of Shelby

September 9th, the City of Shelby, notified the DNR Atlantic Field Office that it received a complaint about pink drinking water. City staff arrived at the plant to discover that two of the four well pumps did not turn on. Since the flow decreased drastically, potassium permanganate was overfed, causing the water to turn pink. The City immediately began working to remedy the issue.

Due to the continuation of the discolored water, the City of Shelby is under a bottled water advisory until sample results become available.Tap water can be used for bathing and other uses, but bottled water should be used for drinking, tooth washing, food preparation and similar uses.

The wells are back online and potassium permanganate is no longer being overfed, but pink water is still observed in the clearwell. The clearwell will be pumped out and replaced with treated water. According to the City, the system's failure alarm did not go off.

Potassium permanganate is used as an oxidizing agent in drinking water and wastewater treatment to help with iron and manganese removal. 

Manganese levels in the city’s raw water have ranged between 0.62 mg/L to 1.3 mg/L. After treatment with potassium permanganate, the manganese levels in the city’s finished water is 0.2 mg/L. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has developed a health advisory level (HAL) for manganese in drinking water of 0.3 mg/L for infants and 1.0 mg/L for adults, respectively. 

More information about manganese in drinking water can be found here: https://www.iowadnr.gov/Portals/idnr/uploads/water/wso/docs/ManganeseFactSheetandFAQ.pdf