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| May 05, 2024 |
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General News: Coming to Your Tap: Good Old Mountain Water
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| The Black Rock water filter plant |
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| This tank is buried up the hillside |
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| Water will filter through these membranes |
January 23, 2007
A Ten-Year Effort Wraps Up
When the new water filter plant comes on line as expected in the next few weeks, it will cap a decade-long effort by the Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson to ensure that water from the five reservoirs in Black Rock Forest meets the Safe Drinking Water standards.
In 1996 the federal government passed stricter measures for protection of surface water used for drinking – and established a multi-billion dollar fund for low-interest loans to pay for improvements to water filter facilities. That’s when the saga of the Black Rock filter plant began. To date, the village has taken some $2.5 million in loans to pay for the project.
Murphy’s Law in Action
In a recent interview, Mayor Ed Moulton recounted the various steps to get the Black Rock plant on line, a process that he described as “Murphy’s Law running rampant,” meaning that if something could go wrong, it would – and did.
The design for the new filtration plant has its roots in the effort by Con Edison to build its power station at the foot of Storm King Mountain. Con Ed had already built one treatment plant for the village in West Cornwall and the company had plans to build another one in Black Rock.
Micro-filter Plant Designed
“They had designs for the plant in Black Rock,” Moulton said, “but it was like three or four million dollars to build – outrageous.” Working with the engineer ing firm of Hazen and Sawyer, the village settled on a micro-filter process that would be about half the cost of the original plans, Moulton explained.
Some two years into the construction, the problems began. In the spring of 2002, the contractor hired by the village went bankrupt and the village had to sort out how unpaid subcontractors would get their money. “It was kind of nasty,” Mayor Moulton recalled, ”but we finally got that all cleared up and got ready to start again.
High Pressure Forces Re-engineering
When the plant was first tested in 2002, the results were ear-shattering, a “monstrous water hammer” pounded through the pipes. “It was just banging and banging, too much pressure,” the Mayor said. “It blew out a few things. You had a 130, 140 pounds of pressure coming into the plant, that’s not right.”
The engineers admitted their oversight and went back to the drawing boards. They decided the plant needed two accumulation tanks to hold the water and relieve the pressure --- one half-way down the hillside and a second inside the plant.
Tank Cover Is Built
Other issues kept cropping up, the mayor said, including the need to have a cover on the tank holding the water after it was treated. That project had to be designed, bid, and built – at a cost of $400,000.
At another point, operators discovered that not enough water was coming into the plant. That resulted in a project to clean out the water line running to the plant from the reservoir and replacement of a section of the line crossing a stream, according to village attorney Howard Protter.
By mid-2003, the village had hired a new contractor to finish the plant and install the new tanks – a process that would drag on another three years.
In late 2004, water department superintendent Ralph Smith retired and Bob June was named to replace him in early 2005. Mayor Moulton said he has to give June a lot of credit for wrapping up the project. “He picked up the ball and ran with it and got us to this point in what I call record time compared to what’s been going on before.”
All Systems Go
The tanks were finally installed in the fall of 2006 and initial tests indicate that everything is working as it should. Once the Orange County Health Department tests and approves the water quality, it will flow into the system, and eventually into homes.
Mayor Moulton is delighted that the plant is nearly ready for operation because, he said, the public health is serious business. Moulton noted, however, that the reservoir water almost met the federal standards years ago without any filtration. “It was just good old mountain water,” he said, smiling.
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