The Valley Breeze

Pawtucket's water getting 'rave reviews' thanks to $48 million treatment plant

PAWTUCKET - It's a sparkling new facility that has put this city among the elite when it comes to the treatment of earth's most valuable resource - water.

Officials from the Pawtucket Water Supply Board gave The Valley Breeze a tour of the new Pawtucket Regional Water Treatment Facility on Branch Street last week, showing off a system they say is capable of pumping out 25 million gallons of clean, healthy water each day.

Most of the final pieces of the new plant construction project, with its state-of-the-art ultraviolet disinfection system, were completed in June, with a ribbon cutting ceremony planned for next Thursday, Sept. 16.

The city of Pawtucket and the PWSB are in the twilight stages of a complete water system rehab that includes the new water treatment facility, a completely rehabbed transmission and distribution system, a new 5 million-gallon storage tank, and rehabbed dams.

"No other water system in the area has even come close to the capital program the Pawtucket Water Supply Board has undertaken, and our customers will see the benefit in terms of water quality and system reliability," said PWSB Chief Water Engineer James DeCelles.

In fact, said DeCelles, the Environmental Protection Agency "was so impressed with our program," that in September of 2008 a publication entitled Pawtucket, Rhode Island: A Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Success Story" was released.

In other words, the EPA is using Pawtucket's capital program model as a standard for other systems that have not begun the inevitable required improvement process.

"At some point, they all need to do what we have done," said DeCelles.

Eighty percent of the transmission and distribution system for the PWSB has now been replaced, making for some of the cleanest water around, according to PWSB officials. It's then delivered to residents in surrounding communities.

Many water systems can boast just a 20 percent distribution system replacement, according to PWSB Assistant Chief Water Engineer Gregg Giasson, while Pawtucket's system is scheduled to be 100 percent complete by 2015.

The regional water plant went online in March of 2008, but officials from the PWSB said the construction project now near 100 percent complete.

The simple explanation for how this complex system works, explained Source Water Manager Chris Collins last week, is that water is pumped to the Branch Street plant from the new raw water pumping station at Happy Hollow Reservoir in Cumberland.

Four upflow clarifiers discharge water to deep bed carbon filters. Following the chemically-enhanced filtration process, water is disinfected using ultraviolet light and sodium hypochlorite.

The ultraviolet process was chosen by the PWSB because of their concern over taste and odor complaints that were once a regular occurrence, according to PWSB officials. The deep bed carbon has been effective at removing taste and odor from the water, they said.

"I remember when all you'd do is just throw some chlorine in the water," said DeCelles, smiling.

According to Ron Salois, manager of accounts and customer service for the PWSB, the number of complaints from water users has plummeted since the new water treatment plant went online.

Sure, there will be complaints when replacement work is happening near someone's house, said Salois, and there are a few who will never be happy, but for the most part, the new water coming out of Pawtucket has received rave reviews.

Back in 1998, the PWSB conducted a feasibility study to determine costs of rehabbing the old water treatment plant, leading to the decision to replace. It wasn't until 2003 that a contract was awarded to build the $45.7 million facility, financed through the Rhode Island Clean Water Finance Agency.

The PWSB services approximately 22,200 water connections, representing just a hair under 100,000 people in Pawtucket, Central Falls, and the Valley Falls section of Cumberland.

"When you've had years and years of bad publicity, those images just remain," he said. "You could be pumping Poland Spring water, and some people will still go, 'eww.'"

With a staff of more than 50 people, the Pawtucket Water Supply Board has a board of directors and is a semi-autonomous extension of the city of Pawtucket. It is an enterprise fund agency, with no subsidization between the city and the PWSB.

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