Aqua Water works with Navy to install filtration system

Aqua New York, the private water company providing water to the Merricks and Bellmores, announced that trace levels of trichloroethylene, or TCE, were detected near one of Aqua’s wells on Seaman’s Neck Road in Levittown. The levels were lower than the Department of Health’s allowance in drinking water standards.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, TCE “is a halogenated aliphatic organic compound, which, due to its unique properties and solvent effects, has been widely used as an ingredient in industrial cleaning solution.” TCE is the most commonly detected volatile organic compound in ground water throughout the United States.

As soon as the trace levels of the VOC were detected, the well was shut down in September, Aqua New York President Matt Snyder said. The company did so to “stay ahead of ground water contamination,” he added.

TCE likely made it into the ground water when a plume of contaminated water from the former Grumman plant skirted its wells. The Grumman property is 2.5 miles away from Aqua’s Seaman’s Neck Road water plant, at the Seaford/Levittown border. In the 1950s, the U.S. Navy and Grumman operated various facilities at the site. Though neither maintains operations at the site, the Navy is held responsible for any future contaminations that may be linked to its operations.

To improve water conditions at the site, the Navy plans to construct a building at the Seaman’s Neck Road site to house water filtration equipment. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command appeared before the Town of Hempstead Board of Appeals to obtain permission to begin construction of the treatment facilities.

As soon as TCE was detected, Aqua and the Navy began working together to build the treatment plant swiftly, Snyder said. The contamination was moving in a southeastern pattern toward the well and needed to be attended to immediately.

A temporary facility will be up and running in 2012 to ensure safe water as soon as possible; the permanent treatment facility will be completed by 2013. Both the temporary and permanent facilities will rely on granulated activated carbon filters, Snyder said. The filters use carbon that has been processed to make them extremely porous and absorb chemicals that pass through; the filters will remove the contaminants from the ground water.

Though the TCE was well below drinking water standards, Snyder said that Aqua wanted to make certain that its customers would receive clean water. “Our priority is first and foremost to ensure good quality water going out to our customers,” he said. Once the temporary facility is up and running, the well be reopened for use.