“By mid- to late summer, people living in about 300 households at Scatchet Head will no longer have to sniff their drinking water for the scent of chlorine before they take a big swig and reach for the faucet for more.Joining several other South Whidbey water systems in a growing water treatment club, the Scatchet Head Water District will begin treating its water with ozone. Ozone, the same gas that protects Earth from harmful doses of ultraviolet rays, has for the last decade been all the rage for water treatment. Though similar to the oxygen or O2 humans breathe, ozone or O3 is actually a poisonous, corrosive gas. That corrosiveness is what makes it so useful in water treatment. Injected into water, ozone kills all living bacteria and, at the same time, causes minerals like manganese and iron to fall or precipitate out of the water for easy filtering. Ozone is not without its problems, says Andy Campbell, owner and operator of South Whidbey Water Services. Campbell maintains several ozone water treatment systems and believes that ozone is in many ways more effective than the traditional water treatment gas, chlorine. But improperly controlled, ozone can feed the problems it is meant to control. Essentially an enriched oxygen gas, ozone can encourage bacteria growth if it is allowed to escape into water wells and mains. One bacteria in particular — an iron reducing bacteria that surrounds itself with iron molecules — is already clogging pipes in South Whidbey water systems without the help of extra oxygen.More and more wells in the area are developing this bacteria, Campbell said.Dave Morphew, a Scatchet Head water commissioner, said this week that his district will pay approximately $100,000 for its ozone system. The system purchase is part of a three-year improvement program that has brought several new water mains and pressure-boosting pumps to district water customers. Morphew said he and his fellow commissioners knew three years ago that they had to bring the water system up to state pressure and service standards if they wanted a water moratorium lifted from the Scatchet Head area. The district was on the borderline for proper residential service and fire protection flow standards during periods of high water use.At the same time, the commissioners were getting constant complaints about how the manganese and iron in the district’s water supply was discoloring everything from bathtubs to washing machines. On top of that, customers were unhappy with the amount of chlorine needed to treat the water. At times, enough of the gas would collect in mains to make the water taste and smell more like pool water than drinking water.Ozone treatment, which was first brought to the attention of the board a decade ago by district water manager Grover Pell, seemed to be the best way to control the mineral content and to reduce the chlorine. Morphew said he expects the district could reduce chlorine loads in the water by up to 75 percent once the new system goes online.I anticipate getting comments like ‘This is great,’ he said. I hope it’s all grins.For the past year, all grins is what water customers of the Sun Vista water system have had. The member-owned system installed an ozone treatment system about five years ago, but discovered during those first years of operation that ozone treatment needs constant attention to work well. Boyd Benson, a board member of the Sun Vista Homeowners Association, said the community had to change water management companies after improper maintenance allowed water mains to choke on iron-reducing bacteria. Benson said that situation was not what Sun Vista members expected when they ponied up $1,300 in assessments per household to install the system.They’re not cheap, he said.Andy Campbell now maintains the Sun Vista system. He said cutting off ozone leaks into the system’s well and pumps plus secondary chlorine treatment has controlled the bacteria spread. Properly monitored, ozone should never reach the pipes because, unlike chlorine, it bubbles out of water almost immediately. Whether a water system pumps 80 gallons a minute, like Sun Vista, or 250 gallons a minute, like Scatchet Head, ozone’s instantaneous effect does the job.It works like clockwork, Campbell said. Because of the hefty price tag for ozone treatment systems, water systems with fewer than 100 connections seldom choose it as an option. Vin Sherman, a water specialist with the Island County Health Department, said Island County is just getting involved in ozone system inspections this year, having contracted with the state Department of Health to monitor medium-sized water systems. Until now, the county has been responsible only for systems of 15 connections or less — systems whose membership cannot generate $100,000 or more to install ozone treatment.It’s quite expensive once you get done, Sherman said.Though ozone is becoming popular among medium-sized water districts, neither Sherman nor Jim Nilsen, a regulatory engineer for the state Department of Health, push districts in one direction or another when it comes to water treatment. Nilsen said the state’s charge is to make certain water district members receive water that is free of coliform and other bacteria and that falls within certain limits of mineral and chemical content. When a district like Scatchet Head chooses to use ozone, chlorine, or another method to screen out any extra minerals, the choice is theirs.Some larger water providers cannot provide ozone treatment due to the expense. In the city of Langley, where more than 1,000 people draw on the city’s water system, chlorine is still the treatment of choice. Langley Mayor Lloyd Furman said the city did consider an ozone system in the interest of reducing the amount of chlorine it uses. However, city staff and the city council concluded chlorine would still be needed to control bacteria in Langley’s sprawling network of water mains. Furman said ozone is more useful on a smaller scale.I’ve considered it for my house, he said.At half the size of Langley’s water system, Scatchet Head will be an unofficial testbed for ozone treatment on a larger scale locally. Dave Morphew said he is optimistic.I’d like to see the bottled water guy not showing up in the neighborhood anymore, he sad.Other South Whidbey water systems and districts using ozone treatment include Mutiny Sands, Goss Lake and Beverly Beach. “