Better
Water: Palatka preparing to build
state-of-the-art treatment plant
By Chris
DeVitto Palatka Daily News February 22, 2007
A new water
treatment plant with state-of-the-art technology will bring Palatka residents
better drinking water by fall 2008.
With one hurdle to
jump--a public hearing in Tallahassee this spring--construction on the $11.5
million project could be under way begin as the summer heat builds, said Woody
Boynton, Palatka’s public works director.
The state
Department of Environmental Protection is required to hold a hearing open for
public comments on the project, spokeswoman Jill Johnson said. “We see nothing standing in the way of
adding them to the finalized funding list,” Johnson said recently.
Geof Mansfield,
senior management analyst for the Division of Water Resource Management, said
the hearing date is tied to delivery of federal grant money. “The minute we know where the Feds are then
we will know when to schedule the hearing,” he said.
The new plant is
needed to deal with trihalomethane, or THM, now in Palatka’s drinking water,
said Melvin Register, the city’s water plant supervisor. “Right now, our level is 86.2 parts per
billion,” he said, compared to the federal limit of 80 parts per billion. “So we are just over the limit and that
makes us out of compliance,” Register said.
THM is a byproduct
of the chlorination process. When chlorine reacts with organic material in the
water, THM is one of the compounds produced, officials said.
A report issued by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says large amounts of THM can be
carcinogenic and have caused adverse reproductive effects in laboratory
animals.
“You would have to
drink two liters of water at the max contaminate levels every day for 70 years
to get a one-in-one million chance of having any symptoms,” Register said.
He said the EPA
lowered the levels in 2004 to protect even the weakest, including people with
immune deficiencies.
“I have actually
had people come out here and say, ‘My father died of cancer and we think your
water might have caused it,’” he said. “What do you tell those people?”
Register said the
Moody Road plant uses large trays for aeration to remove some of the hydrogen
sulfide, or the rotten egg smell, from the water. It is then treated with chlorine and pumped out of the plant.
The new plant will
be housed in an 80-foot building adjacent to the current plant and will have
towers for forced aeration and a micro-filtration system.
“This is going to
be a more efficient method of aeration,” said David Edison, vice president of
the engineering consulting firm Hoyle, Tanner and Associates of Massachusetts,
which designed the new plant.
Edison said air
would be used to create more turbulence when mixing, and that less chlorine
would be needed because of the improved filtering.
“Removing the
organics is the biggest factor for chlorine use and there will be a double
benefit of filtering out the organics,” he said. “One will be less organics to
create THM and two will be less chlorine needed to create drinkable water.”
The current
facility receives its water from eight wells. Treated water is pumped from the treatment plant to the city’s
850,000-gallon tower off Palm Avenue.
Register said the
new plant would help with Palatka’s future development, by boosting capacity
from 4 million to 6 million gallons per day.
Palatka officials
have been working on the project since 2001.
“This project has
gone through many bobs and weaves in the past four of five years,” Register said.
The majority of
funding for the $11.5 million plant will come from a DEP 85-15 grant where the
state will pay for 85 percent of the project and the city will be responsible
for the rest, Boynton said.
“We are asking the
Florida Legislature for the other $2 million to cover our share of the cost,”
he said.
“The other option
would be a bond or a loan and there would be a small rate increase to pay for
that,” Boynton said. “This is a big project and we are trying our hardest to
minimize the cost to our citizens.”
Pre-construction
schedule:
March 7 —
advertise for bids.
April 11— deadline
for bids.
April 26 — bids
reviewed by city commissioners.
June 4 —
construction begins.
Fall 2008 —
completion.