Cleaning up the water

That it took more than two and a half hours for her water to return to normal was something of a shock for North Woodmere resident Teri Schure after she had her home’s water pipes flushed in February by Hot Water Plus, a plumbing company in Baldwin.

“The flow of my water seemed compromised, and I noticed that when taking a shower it was running cold very quickly,” Schure wrote on her Teri Tome blog on Feb. 24. “I also noticed a weird metal-like taste combined with a strong chlorine smell to the water and started to see dirt-like sediment sitting on the bottom of all my toilets.”

Previously, Schure said, the water in her home, which is supplied by New York American Water, the company that provides water to the Five Towns and several surrounding communities, was “so brown and foul-smelling” that she called Hot Water Plus, which recommended that her water heater be emptied and the system’s pipes flushed.

Brown water is a recurring problem in the area, and iron is one of the main culprits, experts say. “On Long Island we get our water from the ground, [and] the water contains minerals, one of which is iron,” said David Breitman, a principal of Hot Water Plus. “Iron, when heated, turns to a rust substance, which sticks to the inside of hot water coils and settles at the bottom of hot water heaters. This rusty substance is what we clean out of the heating apparatus and pipes.”

Officials hope that four new iron-filtration plants that are coming online in the next two years will mitigate the problem. According to Michael Nofi, a water quality manager for New York American Water, the first plant, in Lakeview, will become operational this Friday. Depending on when the required permits are approved, a plant in Malverne is also expected to begin operating this summer. A facility in South Hempstead is scheduled to open by the end of the year, and a plant in Roosevelt is targeted for operation either at the end of 2017 or mid-2018, also dependent on the approval process, he said.

Nofi explained that the unfiltered water that comes out of the ground has a naturally low pH level — meaning that it is too acidic — and a high concentration of iron. The water is treated with calcium to raise the pH and reduce the acidity, and iron filtration plants use an acetate compound to neutralize the iron.

“Iron naturally occurs in our water, and we have an aggressive iron-removal program,” Nofi said, adding that the South Shore has a higher concentration of iron because of its geology, which is flat and sandy.

“When iron is left to stagnate over the winter, then there is a disturbance such as water being used from a fire hydrant, the sediment gets stirred up and leaves corroding particles or discoloration,” Nofi said. To rid the system of the settled iron, he added, New York American Water flushes its system in the spring. In the Five Towns, flushing began on March 14 in some communities and will be completed by April 21. The utility is scheduled to flush its water pipe system in North Woodmere between April 11 and 21.

Donald Irwin, director of environmental programs for the Nassau County Department of Health, said the county takes its responsibility to oversee its water supply seriously. “We look at 250,000 sample results per year, and a vast majority are entered into a database that is uploaded to the federal Environmental Protection Agency,” Irwin said. “High-iron, high-manganese water will be treated or sequestered before it is distributed, and harmful volatile organic compounds are air-stripped to remove them from the water.” Those compounds include the chemicals previously used by dry-cleaning businesses and residual gasoline from service stations.

Irwin recommended that water users review the county’s annual water quality report, which can be accessed at nassaucountyny.gov.In addition, water suppliers such as New York American Water also issue reports which are  available on its website www.amwater.com/nyaw/.

Schure said her water has improved since her system was cleaned out, but discolored water still occurs. “Since my last blog post, I have purchased a 10-cup Zero Water filtration system, which seems to work well,” she wrote on her blog on March 21. “I have been using the filtered water for coffee and boiling, but will stick to Poland Spring for drinking.”

Have an opinion about water quality in the Five Towns? Send your letter to the editor to jbessen@liherald.com.