Loud noise in Marion due to air, sand

Marion residents shouldn't be alarmed by the loud, roaring noise coming from the north side but maybe, resonating all over.

It's not a jet landing in the yard. It's pressurized air being released as sand is removed from the new well on Echo Hill Road.

Todd Stiegerwaldt, general manager of the Marion Water Department, said the city has had several phone calls over the last few months since the process started in January but now that the weather is warming up, windows are open and more people are noticing the noise.

Stiegerwaldt said the process extracts sand from the tank with pressurized air, which produces a "loud, howling, roaring" sound but it's the best way to protect the pump in the well.

"It's annoying and it will make the sound several times a day when the pressure is released and then the next day they pull up the sand, and then they start again," Stiegerwaldt said. "There's no harmful emissions, it's just pressurized air being released."

The sand, which isn't going into the drinking water, has to be removed from the tank because it destroyed one pump that only lasted about three months and it should have been worked for five or six years, Stiegerwaldt said. The pumps cost about $25,000. There was a lot of stopping and starting when a pump first goes on line but it was the sand that broke it.

Stiegerwaldt said there's huge piles of extracted white sand from the well that city officials thought about recycling for playgrounds and parks but this sand is too fine, almost powder-like. They decided it might be a hazard because it would be difficult to brush off a child or could get in a child's eyes. A golf course also tried to use the sand but it didn't work for their purpose.

The noise will only last a few more weeks. The sand removal should be completed by the end of May.