Park City gets around half of its water from abandoned mining tunnels that include a variety of contaminants, such as arsenic and lead.
The city began operating the new 3Kings Water Treatment Plant near the municipal golf course earlier this year. 3Kings cost over $100 million and replaced the Spiro Water Treatment Plant.
Park City Water Quality and Treatment Manager Michelle De Haan says 3Kings cleans water for home faucets, but also local streams.
“The big difference between the Spiro Water Treatment Plant that was built in the ‘90s and was one of the first arsenic and thallium removals plants, was that is was to remove drinking water contaminants,” De Haan said. “Where today we’re also removing contaminants for stream water, because the environment is actually more sensitive than people are when it comes to the very low levels of metals we have to remove from the tunnels.”
De Haan said planning for 3Kings began in 2010, when state environmental regulators told Park City the water discharging from Spiro didn’t meet water quality standards for local streams.
Regarding drinking water, Park City Water Quality Coordinator Iwona Goodley said the new treatment plant removes heavy metals to very low concentrations. By the time the water gets to taps, Goodley says it’s up to residents whether they want to reduce the water hardness, referring to dissolved calcium and magnesium.
“It’s not really unhealthy at all,” Goodley said. “It’s not being regulated, and some people even take supplements for calcium and magnesium, because it’s good for you. However, it is not necessarily good for the piping and the inside the house and appliances, and it also makes like foaming and washing a little bit harder. That’s kind of a personal choice whether people want to remove hardness from the water.”
At 3Kings, water from several sources including the Judge and Spiro tunnels are blended together and treated with chemicals, which work to remove the mining contaminants. The plant also uses ultraviolet light and bleach to remove viruses and pathogens through disinfection.
As required by the EPA and state regulators, Park City is currently conducting an inventory of home water service lines to remove lead pipes.
De Haan encourages any resident with a home built before 1970 to take the city's survey.
Read the water department’s annual consumer confidence report.
