RSS 2.0 FeedThursday, January 19, 2012, Wantagh Seaford Citizen
Temporary water treatment system slated for Seaford
VOCs found at this site are in concentrations less than Nassau County Department of Health drinking water standards.
The United States Navy, in cooperation with Aqua New York, will be installing a temporary and final treatment system for one of the two wells at Aqua New York’s Seamans Neck Road water supply system.
The temporary treatment system will be followed by a final treatment system to improve the drinking water standards. The treatment is required because trace levels of volatile organic compounds have been detected in the water.
The VOCs are linked to the former Grumman property approximately 2.5 miles north of the water supply system. Work on the system will begin in February of 2012. The completed projects are to be finished by the winter of 2012 or 2013.
The U.S. Navy, along with representatives from Aqua New York, held a public availability session at Seaford Library on Tuesday, January 10, and provided residents with a hand-out about the project.
Tom Kohlman of the Forest City Community Association provided a copy of the hand-out to The Citizen.
According to the hand-out, there will be an interim and final treatment system. Each of these systems will consist of vessels containing granular activated carbon (GAC) and are described in the hand-out as “large-scale-versions of common home filtration systems. The GAC has been shown to reliably remove these VOCs from water.”
The interim treatment system will consist of three 20,000 pound GAC vessels to be installed beginning in February through April and will operate until December. Additionally there will be a 21,000 gallon temporary tank to store waste waters.
Construction on the final or long-term system will include six 20,000 pound GAC vessels enclosed within a building and a backup generator to ensure water supply during a power outage. The construction on this system will begin this spring and be completed in the winter of 2012/2013.
The VOCs found at this site are in concentrations less than Nassau County Department of Health drinking water standards, said the handout, but “concentrations can increase over time.”
The Navy will pay for this project and there will be no cost to Aqua ratepayers because the Navy owned a portion of the property where the VOCs originated. A Record of Decision issued in 2003 requires the Navy to install these treatment systems.
In addition to the Navy and Aqua New York, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the state Department of Health, the county Department of Health and the Town of Hempstead will oversee the project.
