Village building new iron filtration plant

There will be less iron in Rockville Centre water — eventually.

The village board of trustees approved plans for an engineering firm to design an iron filtration plant for the Maple Avenue water tank at the July 13 meeting. Out of the three wells that feed the tank, one has excessive iron content and the other two have been increasing.

Iron naturally occurs in the groundwater that these wells draw from. While iron is harmless to drink, it can make water look rusty and stain clothing.

Melville-based firm H2M Architects and Engineers will start examining the tank and designing plans for an iron filtration plant in the next few weeks. It will cost $352,300 and be paid for by the water budget. “Well it’s a lot of engineering,” Harry Weed, superintendent of the water department, said of the cost. “It covers the inspection, covers drawing up the plans, Board of Health approvals. There’s a lot to it.”

After H2M Architects submit the final design, the project will go out to bid.

Also, $2 million worth renovations on the water tower behind South Side High School, which serves the northeast section of the village, are almost complete. The board approved $25,000 for Think Thank Consultants to replace the filtration media in that water tank. “Normally we’re supposed to get roughly about 10 years,” said Weed of the filters. “We’ve actually done about 15 years, so we’ve done very well with that. So before we put the tank back into service… we’ll be doing the media in those vessels.”

After that, the tank must be sanitized and tested for quality and health before it can be put back in service. Residents have been receiving their water from the Maple Avenue tower during the repairs, with some help from the well near Molloy College. Weed said the water tower, which already has an iron filtration plant, should be ready in the next few weeks.

Any changes in the iron levels will not show up in the 2016 water quality report because the village took samples for that last month.