Water Softeners to Become Obsolete at SMSC
A new space to house an innovative water filtration process will be constructed to the west of the Community Center starting in 2008. The Sioux Trail Water Treatment Plant will receive an addition which will roughly double its size to support a Reverse Osmosis (RO) system to filter the water.

Hard water pumped from Community wells will undergo the RO process which will eliminate the need for water
softeners at enterprises and homes on the reservation. Reverse Osmosis separates the minerals and the water into two different “streams.” The smaller stream contains some water with all of the minerals. The other is mineral-free water. A portion of the minerals is then blended back into the water, and the rest will flow into the Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) on Orion Road. A pilot study of the quantity of minerals to blend back has been underway for some time. Once that is complete, then the procurement and construction process will begin. Construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2008 and is expected to be completed by January 2009.

When heated, hard water leaves behind white powdery residue which can form scales and clog pipes. The scale also prevents the efficient transfer of heat, so a water heater with scale has to use more energy to heat hot water. Hard water is also drying to skin and hair and does not taste good to many people. Clothes look dingy and can feel dry and scratchy when washed in hard water. Extremely hard water may shorten the life of plumbing and lessen the effectiveness of certain cleaning agents.

Water softeners generally use sodium chloride to soften water for drinking and other uses. The salt used for
softening the water results in a very high chloride content in the water which ultimately flows into the WRF. In order for the treated effluent to have lower sodium levels, the RO process is necessary.

The advantage to Reverse Osmosis is that chloride has been eliminated from the water stream but the water is still soft. Another benefit is that it does not add sodium, so those on low sodium diets can drink it without an adverse impact on their health.

The RO process is part of a long term SMSC project to inject treated (or reclaimed) wastewater from the WRF back into the ground to recharge the groundwater in the aquifer. The injection process actually takes many years for the injected water to reach the aquifer. Once the RO project is operational, Community enterprises and homes will disconnect the water softeners in their homes because they will no longer be needed. Then water flowing into and therefore out of the WRF will be cleaner.