Pumped
New filter at plant releases purer water



GUILDERLAND — After a month of using an additional $1.7 million filtration system at the town’s water-treatment plant, officials say the town’s water is already cleaner.

The town now has to use only half of the amount of chlorine it previously used to clean the water, said Thadeus Ausfeld, the town’s water-treatment plant operator.

He and William West, the town’s superintendent of water and wastewater management, spoke passionately about their work this week. They said the new system is making Guilderland’s water safer than bottled water.
The idea for the new granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption system was spawned almost three years ago. Then, an Enterprise article — "Hot spots: Water woes beneath the surface" — uncovered and publicized a problem.

Water in some areas of Guilderland had levels of disinfectant byproducts in the 100’s, mostly because they were at the end of unlooped water lines where chemicals became more concentrated. The federal Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum contamination limit is 60 parts per billion.

Higher chlorine amounts are typically needed to reach the end of a distribution system; at the end of a pipeline, water and chlorine are in contact for long periods of time. Often dead-end lines produce higher readings.

Chlorine is added to the water to make it safe from microbes. The disinfectant, however, can react with decaying vegetation or other organic matter and possibly create carcinogens. Two disinfectant byproducts are trihalomethanes (TTHM’s), such as chloroform, and haloacetic acids.

Past problems

In March of 2003, Guilderland’s average maximum contamination limit was 80 parts per billion; the standard is 60. The town was then required to send notices to residents using town water.
"Some people who drink water containing haloacetic acids in excess of the maximum contamination limit over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer," the notice sent by the town stated in italic print, attributing the information to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Residents should not be alarmed, West told The Enterprise at the time. The town was required to send the notice, under orders by the EPA, he said. "It’s more of a consumer’s right-to-know thing," he said.
Referring to the statement in the notice, West emphasized the word "may."
"To me, that’s a pretty broad statement," he said. "...The language is not that specific because the science is not that specific."

In April of 2003, the Guilderland Town Board hired Camp, Dresser & McKee, a national firm, to make recommendations on how to solve the problem.

That October, the firm made two recommendations. The first was to find another water source. This is not possible, West said then.

The town gets most of its water from the Watervliet Reservoir, the city of Albany, and town-owned wells.

The firm’s other recommendation was to implement the GAC adsorption system. The system is designed to adsorb, or hold to a surface, the residual organic compounds into carbon granules and reduce the formation of the disinfectant byproducts.

The town board then approved building this system, for about $1.7 million.

This June, the town hired a different engineering firm to create a feasibility study on looping dead-end water lines. If this is done, the water supply on part of Western Avenue and in Guilderland Center and Fort Hunter will need less chemical treatment, Supervisor Kenneth Runion said earlier.
"The looping will have a couple of positive effects," West said then. "It’s a positive aspect for water quality in that, with positive hydraulics, we can move water better."

Water that is constantly flowing is less likely to have particles settling in the pipes and contaminating the water, he said.
"We have dead ends all over town, but those may be smaller," West said. "We try to loop wherever we can."

In June, The Enterprise reviewed the 2004 water-quality report, the most recent report, which showed that parts of Guilderland still had much higher levels of TTHM’s than acceptable.

In August of 2004, Guilderland High School’s level was 93.6 parts per billion. At Serafini Drive in August, the level was 115 parts per billion, and, in November, the level was 74.8 parts per billion.

Also, in August of 2004, Westville Apartments’ level of TTHM’s was 126 and, in November, it was 88. On Birch Court, it was 80 in August and 89.5 in November.

In February and May, the two other months when samples were drawn, the levels of TTHM’s met standards. This is because, in the winter months, acid levels are lower, dropping the TTHM’s levels.

The areas with levels above the maximum contamination limit didn’t show up in official reports because a system of averaging was used. The EPA is currently working on a new regulation that will eliminate averaging across the system, but it will not be in place for a few more years.

West said this summer that the town also does lead and copper sampling, and in most cases, the levels are normal. But, he said, old pipes can cause high levels of lead to contaminate the water. A house with old plumbing could show unhealthy levels, he said. The town would notify the residents of this house, recommending they let their taps flow for a few seconds before drinking the water, he said.

He added then that he was confident the new GAC system would help clear the problem.

Ausfeld, too, was excited about the new system. But, he continues to stress that the cleanup of the Watervliet Reservoir is still a major concern. Ausfeld co-chairs a committee that is looking at pollution at the old Army depot, which affects the water in the Black Creek, which flows into the Watervliet Reservoir.

New system

This week, West and Ausfeld, who have both worked for the town for more than 25 years, and Daniel Durfee, principal engineer of Camp, Dresser & McKee, gave The Enterprise a tour of the water plant and the nearby building that houses the new GAC system.

The GAC system took almost two years to build and the work included running several large water pipes underground, from the water-treatment plant to the new building.

The vinyl-sided building, which looks like a large garage, contains six large blue tanks that stand 10 feet tall. West compared the tanks — the heart of the GAC system — to six large Brita water filters.

Ausfeld explained the filtering process with a metaphor: Imagine placing a tea bag into hot water and later trying to remove the tea from the liquid. This is what the water plant does, he said. It absorbs the tea, or contaminants, from water before it is sent to residents, he said.

The GAC system, Ausfeld said, goes a step further and filters any microscopic particles of tea, or contaminants, from the drinking water.

Along the wall of the GAC building is a long, thick pipe that is half blue and half green. One end is connected to similar pipes that can be seen through grates in the floor of the building and the other end leads to the six tanks.

Ausfeld turned a knob on the green part of the pipe and, from a small, clear hose, water poured into a bucket. This, he said, is water that contains carbon and other particles.

He then moved over a few feet to the blue part of the pipe and turned a similar knob. The water that came out was just as clear as that which came out of the green pipe. But, Ausfeld said, this is clean water that’s been filtered through the tanks.

The tanks needs to be cleaned out and have their carbon replaced every two years, Ausfeld said. Large trucks attach hoses to the tanks and pump them, he said.

Although 2.5 million gallons of water run through the system each day, the building was quiet.

Town water may not always be filtered through the GAC system, Ausfeld said. In the winter months, when acid levels are much lower, the extra treatment may not be necessary, he said.
The GAC system, West said, "is really just polishing filtered water."
"It will give us a buffer," said Durfee, "if there’s ever a spill along the Watervliet Reservoir. There’s not much regulation of the watershed now, so there could be a spill."

The town wants to be prepared for not just an accidental truck spill, West said, but also for terrorists’ polluting the water supply.
"The water supply is very vulnerable," he said, adding that the watershed is 115 miles. "We can’t put a gate up and have dogs running around. It’s like trying to protect the border."

The water plant began using the GAC system in mid-September and workers have been testing the water since then, Ausfeld said.

The chlorine demand has dropped 50 percent, he said. Where before Guilderland was adding 80 pounds of chlorine to its water, now it only needs 40 pounds, Ausfeld said.

In a laboratory at the water-treatment plant, Ausfeld held up a clear glass container that was filled with what looked like black pebbles or crushed coal. It was carbon that had been filtered from the town’s water, he said.
"Our lab is the first customer in the water district," Ausfeld said. Before water is sent to homes and businesses, the water department samples and tests it.

Both Ausfeld and West spoke passionately about their work. They offered to give any resident a private tour of the water-treatment plant.
"Our people that work for the Guilderland water system, these guys are great," Ausfeld said. They know the pipes underground as well as the town’s highway-department workers know the roads, he said.

The town serves water to 8,500 houses and businesses, West said.

Residents may drink up to a gallon of water a day and use the rest for the shower, toilet, dishwasher, and washing machine, West said. But, he said, all public water is as clean as commercial bottled water, even the water that is in toilets.

The GAC system is designed with piping so that extra units can be added to it, Ausfeld said.
West said that the town tried to "look into the crystal ball," to plan for not just the present, but the future.
"We have one of the premier systems in the Capital District," West concluded. "We did the project within two-and-a-half years from ID’ing the problem; I think that’s pretty good....And, it’s funded without borrowing money and raising taxes."