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| Lowville Mayor Discusses Water Conservation Request 07/28/17 10:00am |
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been asked to conserve water until further notice, as the system has been pushed beyond capacity. The issue has been building the past few weeks, according to Lowville Mayor Donna Smith, who spoke with us this morning. At this point, the Village has not been able to keep the reserve holding tank filled to an acceptable level. A number of factors have contributed to the problem. As explained by Mayor Smith, the water system uses a series of four sand filtration beds. Normally, summer is the time that each filtration bed is changed and maintenance performed, taking the bed offline for around 72 hours. At this time, one bed has been changed this year meaning the remaining three are not currently performing at full capacity. When the system is performing at full capacity, it is able to handle the filtering of around 1.5 million gallons per day. The issue appears to be not a lack of water, but the ability to treat the amount of water being consumed. The system has seen an increase the past few weeks, with the Lewis County Fair being in town and a sizeable increase of usage from the Village's largest water consumer, according to Mayor Smith. Kraft Heinz recently put their new string cheese production online, and has increased usage from around 800,000 gallons a day to over a million gallons per day. When adding in the rest of the consumption in the Village, the daily usage rate is around 1.3 million gallons. According to Mayor Smith, the water needs a four-hour contact time with chlorine before entering the system. If the water is being pulled in before it has the proper amount of contact with chlorine, it could lead to a Boil Water Advisory. "At this point there are not any health concerns to residents," Mayor Smith said. "We put the Conserve Water Advisory in place in an effort to avoid having to go to a Boil Water Advisory," she added. The Village is keeping a close eye on the situation and has been testing the water a number of times each day. We tried to obtain inspection data from the New York State Department of Health and were instructed to submit a Freedom of Information Law request, which will be answered within twenty days. "We really need residents' help with conserving water for now to avoid going into a Boil Water Advisory," Mayor Smith said. "Turn off the water while brushing your teeth, take a quicker shower, don't let the water run when doing dishes, and things of that nature can make a big difference," Mayor Smith explained. The Conserve Water Advisory also asks residents to refrain from watering lawns, washing cars, filling pools, limiting laundry washing, and any unnecessary consumption. Mayor Smith was unsure how long the Conserve Water Advisory would need to be in place. The Village's Department of Public Works Superintendent Thomas Compo has not respond to a request for comment at the time of publishing. We will update with any new details as they become available. |
