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Pascoag
Water District Fact Sheets
  
News Release
RI Department of Environmental Management
235 Promenade St., Providence, RI 02908
(401) 222-2771 TDD/(401) 222-4462
For Release: November 14, 2001
Contact: Stephanie Powell 222-4700 ext. 4418, pager 482-2968
Robert Ballou, DEM, cell phone 258-9156

DEM, HEALTH, ANNOUNCE THAT TEMPORARY PASCOAG WATER FILTER SYSTEM WILL BECOME OPERATIONAL SATURDAY AFTERNOON
All Health Advisories Remain in Effect: Residents Should Still Use Bottled Water for Drinking, Cooking and Should Not Bathe Young Children With Tap Water

PROVIDENCE - The Departments of Environmental Management and Health today announced that the temporary carbon filter system designed to reduce the levels of MTBE contamination in the Pascoag Utility District public water system is in place and will become operational tomorrow afternoon. The interim treatment system is expected to reduce MTBE levels in Pascoag water, and ultimately provide residents with safer water for certain uses such as bathing. In the meantime, however, HEALTH stresses that all advisories remain in effect.

Residents should continue to use bottled water for drinking and cooking. The state will continue to provide 15 gallons of bottled water per person per month to affected Pascoag households, along with continued bottled water from the Pascoag Utility District.

Residents should continue to use fans or ventilation while bathing and washing dishes, and avoid using Pascoag water to bathe young children. Residents should also continue to conserve tap water to limit withdrawal, as conservation remains an important way to help limit the amount of MTBE being pumped into the water system.

A new source of clean, potable water is expected to become available in January when the new wells under construction in Eccleston Field come on line. Meanwhile, the MTBE levels in the Pascoag system will continue to be closely monitored to gauge the effectiveness of the interim treatment system.

The portable carbon filter system, installed near Pascoag wells 3 and 3A, will treat 300 gallons of water per minute by utilizing six carbon filtration units operating in pairs. After flowing into the filter system, the water will be diverted into three steams. Each stream will pass through two filters, each containing 2,000 pounds of carbon to capture the MTBE. After being filtered, the separate flows of water will rejoin and pass into the distribution system in one stream.

Lincoln Environmental, working in concert with Pare Engineering, designed, installed and will oversee operation of the treatment equipment. Cost of the purchase, installation, and operation of the system for two months totals $176,700. Funding was supplied by the state's Underground Storage Tank Financial Responsibility Fund.

More than 4,000 Pascoag residents have been unable to use their tap water for drinking or cooking, and later for bathing young children, since early September because of water contamination from MTBE, a gasoline additive, which officials believe leaked from a local gasoline station.

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For General Information 222-6800 • After Hours Emergencies 222-3070 • Disclaimer