Wild Texas Forums: Parks, Travel & Recreation - View Single Post - question about braunig and calaveras waters

Electric Water Boy · 04-30-2007, 06:58 PM

I did boiler and cooling water treatment at both lakes for about 15 years.

Does the boiler water ever get put into the lake? Yes. Each unit when running puts in anywhere from 500 to 1,000 gallons per hour of darn near pure water. The "impurities" would be sodium phoshates usually at less tham 3 ppm and ammonia in the ppb range. pH would be around 9.0 to 9.5. Everything else is in the very low ppb or nondetect range.

Cooling water is treated with scale inhibitors. Used to be phosphates, but now it is something else. What's pumped now takes 5 minutes or more to set the pump rates because it takes that long to get a measurable flow.

Cooling water is also treated with sodium hypchlorite (basically extra strength bleach) and sodium bromide. Where the cooling water goes back to the lake the levels are next to nothing. As a side note, of all the things at the plant that could potentially kill me (2,600 psi, 1,005 F steam, large objects spinning at 3,600 rpm or better, high places, etc, the thing that scared me is what the hypchlorite and bromide replaced - chlorine. That's some nasty bad stuff to deal with).

The water lab checks the lake weekly. The thing I noticed over the years was the pH change. It would go up when there was no rain. When rain came it would go up for a short while and then drop. I assume this was due to runoff in the creeks feeding the lake.

The main makeup to both lakes is the San Antonio River. Most would think CPS Energy pumps water for free, taking water from the river that springs out of the ground just north of downtown. CPS Energy has to buy the water, which is sewage water effluent. The river is used as a "pipeline." Before you go yuck, the water downstream of the treatment lant is cleaner that what's upstream. That water may have been clean coming out of the ground, but go walk the Riverwalk and see all the crap that gets washed into the river.

So, to cut to the chase - Are the fish safe to eat? Yes. I plan of camping at Braunig in a few weeks, catching some cats, fry'em up, and sit back with some buddies and tell fish stories.

04-30-2007, 06:58 PM	#5
Electric Water Boy Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: San Antonio Posts: 43	Re: question about braunig and calaveras waters I did boiler and cooling water treatment at both lakes for about 15 years. Does the boiler water ever get put into the lake? Yes. Each unit when running puts in anywhere from 500 to 1,000 gallons per hour of darn near pure water. The "impurities" would be sodium phoshates usually at less tham 3 ppm and ammonia in the ppb range. pH would be around 9.0 to 9.5. Everything else is in the very low ppb or nondetect range. Cooling water is treated with scale inhibitors. Used to be phosphates, but now it is something else. What's pumped now takes 5 minutes or more to set the pump rates because it takes that long to get a measurable flow. Cooling water is also treated with sodium hypchlorite (basically extra strength bleach) and sodium bromide. Where the cooling water goes back to the lake the levels are next to nothing. As a side note, of all the things at the plant that could potentially kill me (2,600 psi, 1,005 F steam, large objects spinning at 3,600 rpm or better, high places, etc, the thing that scared me is what the hypchlorite and bromide replaced - chlorine. That's some nasty bad stuff to deal with). The water lab checks the lake weekly. The thing I noticed over the years was the pH change. It would go up when there was no rain. When rain came it would go up for a short while and then drop. I assume this was due to runoff in the creeks feeding the lake. The main makeup to both lakes is the San Antonio River. Most would think CPS Energy pumps water for free, taking water from the river that springs out of the ground just north of downtown. CPS Energy has to buy the water, which is sewage water effluent. The river is used as a "pipeline." Before you go yuck, the water downstream of the treatment lant is cleaner that what's upstream. That water may have been clean coming out of the ground, but go walk the Riverwalk and see all the crap that gets washed into the river. So, to cut to the chase - Are the fish safe to eat? Yes. I plan of camping at Braunig in a few weeks, catching some cats, fry'em up, and sit back with some buddies and tell fish stories.