By the time spring rolls around, facilities to remove C-8 from drinking water should be in operation throughout our area.

DuPont offered the city of Belpre and five other water districts a filtration system that would remove the chemical used to make teflon from the water supply.

This is part of a court settlement.

Todd Baucher has an update one of the construction projects.

"We're just glad to have it here," says Safety-Service Director Dale Myers, Jr. "Even if we have a little C-8, it's good that we have it removed, and we're awfully thankful we're getting the project to remove it."

The city says it has contingency plans for the system, should a scientific review board determine C-8 has no harmful effects on humans.

While the building's purpose is to filter out the C-8, there is a question as to what it might do to improve Belpre's water in general.

"All the things we test for, organic and inorganic compounds that could be removed by granular activated carbon, haven't shown up in our water so far," says Water Administrator Mike Betz. "If there's anything else in there that can be removed, we don't test for it or it hasn't shown up yet."

Betz says the filtration system probably won't do much to improve hard water, something he says is Belpre's biggest water problem.

Work is also halfway toward completion on a filtration plant for the Tuppers Plains-Chester water system in Meigs County.

General Manager Don Poole says most of the internal work at the site has been completed, and that the rest of the project should go faster. Poole won't make a completion estimate until March, but believes the entire project should be finished sometime in the spring.