Friday, October 11, 2019

Franklin Residents: Water Treatment Plant Update - Oct 10, 2019

via the Franklin DPW Facebook page:

"WATER TREATMENT PLANT UPDATE:

As you are aware, the Water & Sewer Department staff has been working to restore the Hayward Street Water Treatment Plant to full capacity since the fire on July 6, 2019. A full cleaning and damage assessment was performed to determine which equipment had to be replaced or repaired. Analysis was done to ensure all new components would meet or exceed new standards. New technology was evaluated and installed to improve control, lower operating costs and increase efficiency where allowed. All repairs were evaluated to determine which tasks would be best completed in house or outsourced to contractors in order to quickly repair the system and maximize cost savings. Much of this work has been completed on weekends by our dedicated staff.

Final replacement parts that were directly damaged by the fire, including the tank heater that caused the fire and had to be custom built, arrived last week. The crews worked quickly to install the parts so that the plant could be fully started up and “test run” for a complete evaluation. It was our hope to restore full operation by the end of last week. However, during this start up, it became apparent that the ultra-filtration filters, which were running intermittently since late July, had sustained damage and required additional repair. All start up procedures and testing has been under the direction of the filter manufacturer and the damage to the filters was not anticipated.

Our crews worked for five straight days in an attempt to repair the filters to a usable level. This is a very tedious process that requires placing a “pin” in each filter that is damaged. There are a total of 40 filter membrane cartridges, in some cartridges there were over 600 holes! Even with all the repairs, water quality was not acceptable, i.e. too much iron and manganese was making it through the filters. We immediately placed the order for all new filters.

Although the manufacturer has rush prioritized our order, these specialized filters require several weeks to manufacture. Therefore, we are currently expecting delivery of new filters in approximately three weeks. In the meantime, we have brought in our consulting engineering firm to see if they have any recommendations to make the old filters more effective until the new filters are installed.

We understand the difficulty the water ban has caused many residents and citizens. We truly appreciate everyone’s patience, understanding, and continued commitment to water conservation. Please understand, we do not recommend a water ban lightly. We need to ensure that there is enough water for drinking and sanitary needs as well as to maintain proper storage levels for fire suppression.

Once again, thank you for your support, feel free to contact us with any further questions."


This is available from the Town of Franklin page
https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/franklinma/files/news/hayward_street_water_treatment_plant_update_0.pdf




photo via Franklin DPW Facebook page
photo via Franklin DPW Facebook page

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