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March 19, 2008

Pawtucket's new water treatment plant is operational

PAWTUCKET -- Two years after it was scheduled to be finished, the much-delayed new water treatment plant came on line today.

The plant, which is pumping at a rate of 8.5 million gallons a day, went on line around noon, according to Pawtucker Water Supply Board officials. Built by Earth Tech behind the water supply headquarters on Branch Street, it has a maximum daily capacity of 25 million gallons.

James L. DeCelles, the water supply board chief engineer, said the only hitch that occurred was a brief spike in water pressure that dislodged rust from some of the pipes in the water system, causing some customers' water to turn brown. There was a flurry of complaints, he said, but they abated as water supply board officials dealt with the problem.

Allen Champagne, the supply board's source water manager, said the pressure spike happened because the board continued to operate the old plant while bringing the new plant on line. And the pressure valve in the new plant malfunctioned, causing the spike.

The old plant, on Mill Street in Cumberland, is now off line. But it is being kept operational as backup in the event of a problem at the new plant.

The new plant cost more than $40 million and took roughly three years to build. It was supposed to be finished in March 2006 but a series of issues, including shortage of stainless steel and difficulty in scheduling a contractor on a small construction site, delayed completion of the plant until about a month ago.

DeCelles said the new plant, which supplies water to all of Pawtucket and Central Falls and to the Valley Falls section of Cumberland, got final state Department of Health approval yesterday. As a result, the decision was to begin operation today

-- With reports from Journal staff writer John Castellucci

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 6:49 PM | Permalink

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