New Water Treatment Facility for our Municipal Water System
On January 17th the Provincetown Department of Public Works hosted an informative meeting at the Truro Community Center. Mark White, a project manager for Environmental Partners Group, gave a talk that provided a lot of insight into the workings of the Provincetown water system, focusing on an advanced filtration system that will be installed at the Knowles Crossing well site in North Truro.
The Knowles Crossing well field is located between Shore Road and Route 6, at the southern and western end of the glacial moraine, where the railroad tracks used to cross Route 6.
In 1906 the Massachusetts General Court passed legislation which permitted Provincetown to buy and own land in Truro on which they could drive wells to provide drinking water for the their citizens. Three wells are located at this site. In the years since then, Provincetown has also installed the Paul J. Daley well site on South Hollow Road in North Truro (diagonally across Route 6 from the Truro Vineyard) and is well on the way to install a third well field on land leased from Truro at North Union Field Road, also in North Truro.
The water from these two well fields has only one drawback: it contains some iron and some manganese. These two compounds have been progressively increasing in concentration over the last ten years to the point that they exceed the State’s limits for aesthetic standards, which are 0.3 mg/l for iron and 0.05mg/l for manganese. These elements only affect the appearance of the water by making it appear “dirty”. Today, when the water from South Hollow and Knowles Crossing is pumped from the well fields and goes into the distribution system the iron and manganese precipitates out when the water is exposed to air, causing it to accumulate as a sediment lying in the bottom of the water main and connected pipes. Under the effect of any turbulence, such as when a fire hydrant is opened, these fine particles swirl around to give it a dirty appearance. The new filter system, similar in many respects to a “reverse osmosis system”, is designed to remove the iron oxide and manganese oxide particles from all the water delivered to users. The metal particles will be recovered, dried, and re-used, or sold. In addition to removing iron and manganese the water will continue to be treated the same way it is treated today for disinfection and pH adjustment.
The filtering system is to be installed in a one-story brick building, 131 feet by 60 feet, located to the east of and behind the present building. Because it is in a low-lying area in the central part of the property, and because the property has a tree buffer on both sides of the building, the building will not be very visible from Shore Road. The building and grounds will be maintained by the Provincetown Water Department.
A new water main has already been installed along Route 6 that will bring water from the wells at South Hollow to the Knowles Crossing filtration facility. After this raw water has been filtered it will be released to the regular mains, through which it will flow both south (toward the Truro Central School) and north through Beach Point to Provincetown, as usual.
The DPW hopes that this facility will be on-line and delivering bright, clear water by the end of 2013.