Tour of Village Water Supply Facilities
Andy Perchlik
Rich Phillips
1/3/08
Water Supply Facilities on Folsom Hill----Rich Gouge---Well and Storage Built about 2000 Uranium Addition 2007
The Facilities include:
1) A well about 700 feet deep (static water level around 80 feet down) with a 5 HP submersible pump set about 300 feet down discharging freely to the atmosphere and then running by gravity down to the treatment and storage facilities. The 4-inch gravity line is about 1475 feet long and drops from about 1380 to 1348 or about 32 feet. The pump discharges about 65 gpm to the 4-inch line and the nameplate amps are likely 20 at 220 volts. The well has a yield of about 100 gpm. Total daily flow is averaging about 25,000 gpd to meet demand.
2) The treatment and storage facilities are contained in a control building that originally was about 26’x29’ with a 26’x34’ substructure. A 12’x22’ addition has been added to the front of the building for the uranium treatment facilities. The building’s ground floor contains the uranium treatment filters, the radon treatment blowers and treatment units, the flow meter/recorder, the standby chlorination pump and storage facilities. The substructure includes two large finished water storage tanks, the standby chlorine contact chamber and a hydro-pneumatic pumped water system to push finished water back up hill to two higher homes.
3) The system operates based on the level of finished (treated) water in the storage tanks. When the tank water level drops below a set (and adjustable) level, the well pump is activated and sends water to the treatment facilities at a 65gpm rate. The water flows through the uranium treatment to the radon treatment units then to the storage tanks. When the tanks are refilled, the pump is deactivated.
4) The radon treatment blowers are 5HP with a nameplate draw of 20 amps with voltage at 220V. These blowers operate only when the well pump is operating.
5) Three ceiling- mounted electric fan units heat the building. Two have nameplate amp draw of 13.9 amps at 220 volts. These units are in the radon room and the office. The third unit is in the uranium room apparently draws 3 kw at 240volts.
All units are set for low temperatures most of the time as the facility is only visited a short part of each day. The uranium room is set low at all times.
6) The building is wood frame and appears to have 6inch wall and 15 inch roof insulation
7) The building is lighted with current issue lights
8) The Folsom Hill facilities, without the uranium treatment, came on line around 2001. After a brief period of use the uranium issue was identified which led to reduced use of these facilities and more dependence on the Depot Spring. It wasn’t until the last few months that the entire Village has been served by the Folsom Hill facilities. The Depot Spring facilities are now abandoned.
9) A brief review of the power usage by the well pump and the treatment facilities shows a marked increase in the power use by the well pump beginning in August 2007. Use jumped from 436 kwhrs in July to 1126 kwhrs in August and the next three months were 1575, 1603 and 1498. This is almost three times the use during the same months in 2006. Apparently this is explained by the fact that this is the period when all Village residents began getting all their water from the Folsom facilities. For the treatment and storage facilities, the record shows an annual cycle of highs from December to April with a substantial use reduction during the other months. This may be partially caused by the many homes that need to leave their water running in the winter. A portion of the increase may also be attributed to the building heat. However this energy use record probably is not very dependable because the system was not running in the normal state it is now with the Depot spring also being used.
10) The treatment and storage facilities discharge out the line to the Village at about 1332 and over about 1840 feet drop about 1152 (180 feet) to a pressure reducing valve in a 5 foot diameter manhole about 6 feet deep near Burnham’s. From this point, the line falls another about 300 feet to Rte 2 and on through the Village. We need to find out how the pressure is further reduced in the Village.
Preliminary possibilities:
1) There is probably not much that can be done about the power used by the well pump. It apparently is delivering much more than needed to keep up with demand but runs less of the time than a smaller pump like a three horse pump. We have not worked any figures on any potential savings by changing the pump and would not since its very unlikely that a change would be economically justified.
2) The major none heating electrical energy use is the well pump and the radon blowers. A possibility we believe should be looked into is whether the blowers could be stepped down in speed and output without adversely affecting the radon removal. A review of the basic design of the treatment process and consultation with DEC would be necessary to determine the viability of this option. If it’s possible from a regulatory standpoint, then we’d need to review the equipment to determine how to accomplish the reduction in speed and determine the pay back. Since this has the possibility of reducing one of the primary power draws at the facility, we should look closely.
3) We need to develop some reliable figures on just how much of the winter power usage is associated with the heating and look at alternatives if they make any sense.
4) We will look into the possibility of generating power from the 25,000 gpd dropping 500 feet to the Village. Using an in-pipe turbine.
5) We will evaluate all the information including the detailed power usage figures to see if there are any other possibilities.
Borrowed from Rich Gouge:
Set of plans and two weekly flow charts