Anger over brown water aired at village meeting

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Malverne residents, saying they are tired of living with brown water, gathered at a meeting organized by the village with New York American Water last week to voice their frustrations.

Brian Bruce, the utility’s vice president of operations, spoke on its behalf throughout the meeting, beginning his presentation by saying that, since 2009, New York American Water has invested over $20 million in the Malverne area alone. Of that total, $14 million funded the creation of two water-filtration plants the company needed to build in order to prevent the Department of Health from shutting down its operations.

“Regulations in Nassau County require that the iron level [in the wells] is 1.5 parts to a million,” said Bruce. The iron levels in the wells in both plants are above that, with one measuring 3.5 parts per million and the other above 2, he said.

Bruce added that the company has been replacing mains in Malverne at four times the rate of all other locations it serves because of the severity of the problem — an average of 3,600 feet of mains each year since 2009. Bruce promised at the meeting to increase that to an average of 5,000 feet per year, but that did not satisfy residents who have lived with brown water for years.

William Coogan, who lives on Hempstead Avenue and purchased a filtration system for his home, brought two sediment-stained water filters to the meeting. “I got so fed up with the color of the water in my house that I went out and spent a lot of money to fix it,” he told Bruce. “You and your company have told residents that they need to change the hot-water heater, lower the water temperatures, flush the hot-water heater. Everyone who drains the water heater is dumping 30 to 40 gallons of heated water down the drain. I’m advising you that I have all my receipts, my invoices, and I’m taking you to small claims court. I’m going to get my money back.”

Coogan’s comments were met with loud applause. The water company has told many Malverne residents that their water heaters caused the problem, and that they should drain them or buy new ones.

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