What's New At South Huntington Water?
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"Long Island Robbers Pose As Utility Workers"
The above disturbing headline appeared in the Long Island newspapers recently. Robbers posing as water utility workers entered more than one Long Island home, intimidating the elderly owners to let them in by claiming they were there to check the homeowners' piping.
Please be advised that all South Huntington Water District employees carry a yellow Identification Card bearing their name, title and photos. Please don't be shy about asking to see it - we understand! Secondly, all service technicians are in uniform with the District logo on the shirt or jacket. Finally, all service technicians drive bright yellow trucks carrying the yellow District decal on the doors.
Uniformed South Huntington Water District Employee Will Chavez Drives Prominently Marked Water District Truck #7
All District Field Employees Are In Uniform And Drive Yellow Vehicles With This Decal
If you still have any doubt about the identification of a Water District employee, or if you have any security concerns at all about District facilities, do not hesitate to call the District Office at 631-427-8190.
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A BIT OF DISTRICT HISTORY
Every Long Islander is familiar with the sight of elevated water storage tanks, perched high atop their tall, steel "legs". They dot the Island landscape, often visible for great distances due to their height. These tanks perform a vital mission by storing water in reserve for periods of high consumption, including large fires. Additionally - and very importantly - because of the height of the water within, these elevated tanks create and maintain water pressure in the water mains below them.
But in South Huntington, we're often asked, "Where are your elevated tanks?". Well....we don't have any. Through a good fortune of Nature, the South Huntington Water District boundaries incorporate some of the highest terrain on Long Island. (In fact, Jayne's Hill, the highest point on Long Island at 399', is located right in West Hills). Years ago, with wonderful foresight, the Water District purchased parcels of land in these high elevation areas. The plan was to build South Huntington's reservoir tanks on these high elevations as the growth of the community continued. The Water District now operates two separate reservoir complexes on, and adjacent to, Jayne's Hill. Another large District reservoir site is located up in the high, rolling terrain of the Pidgeon Hill Road area. In essence, the naturally high elevation of the land becomes the "legs" for these tanks, giving them the needed height to maintain system pressure. Without the need for the complex and size-limiting traditional elevated tank construction, the South Huntington Water District has been able to build very large, but relatively low-profile water tanks on these hill tops. More water can therefore be placed into reserve at lower cost and at a lessened visual impact to the community.
There was one exception, though, and perhaps some of our more well-seasoned District customers will recall it!
Elevated tank construction, East 23rd Street and Nathan Place, circa....1930(?)
On East 23rd Street, between Hollis Place and Nathan Place in Huntington Station, a small, elevated steel storage tank once graced the skyline. Constructed early in the District's history (perhaps a knowledgeable viewer can identify the year of the car in the right, rear background of the photo?), the tank was designed to serve the north-eastern part of our distribution system. The old and badly bruised photo above shows part of the riser pipe being hoisted into place during construction. As the demands of the District grew and the East 23rd Street Tank outlived it's usefulness, new and far larger storage facilities were built on the high ridge off of Pidgeon Hill Road. The old steel tank was demolished in the late 'Sixties and is now the site of several homes.
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Thoughts Of Warm Summer In Frigid January
Like many of our customers, these dark, cold, and snowy January days have us thinking about this coming July. But we're not only dreaming of the barbeques and sunny beach days ahead - we're also preparing for the heavy water demand that the Summer of 2009 will inevitably bring.
On a typical Winter day, the Water District may pump as little as 4 to 5 million gallons of water. Many people are surprised to learn, however, that on a hot, steamy Summer day the District may quintuple that output, often pumping 24 to 25 million gallons of water a day during an extended heat wave. These high demand days require that our pumping and treatment equipment be working efficiently and at full capacity.
Above, District Treatment Plant Operator Ken Carsten Performs A Winter Overhaul On A Well Site Chlorinator
Naturally, then, with the system demand appreciably lowered, Winter becomes the ideal time to do preventative maintenance. All of our Sites get a complete electrical inspection with repairs and maintenance performed as required. Often times we will schedule to have a supply well "pulled" for inspection and replacement of components that normally reside hundreds of feet below grade. Treatment systems and small piping get a complete going over. Finally, we'll do minor but important building maintenance and painting.
So yes, like you, we're darn ready for Summer - but in more ways than one!
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On January 20, 2009, the Water District honored one of our veteran employees, Mr. Troy Manheim. The occasion marked Troy's 15th year of service with South Huntington Water where he is a seasoned Maintenance Mechanics and holds a coveted New York State Grade 2B Water Treatment Plant Operator's license. Additionally, Troy is a skilled backhoe operator and has a particularly close working knowledge of the District's remote-read water meter system. Mr. Manheim, his wife Caroline and their two children live in Huntington.
Congrats, Troy!
District Maintenance Mechanic Troy Manheim Accepts Service Award
(L to R) Chief Plant Operator Michael Feeney, Mechanic Troy Manheim, Superintendent Kevin Carroll, District Foreman Brian O'Donnell
(The combined Water District experience of these four employees alone totals over 100 years!)
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Ciro DePalo Takes Office As South Water District Commissioner
Following his election on December 9, 2008, Ciro DePalo assumed the office of Commissioner of the South Huntington Water District on January 1 of this year. Mr. DePalo was officially sworn-in by fellow Commissioner Paul Tonna at the first business meeting of the Board in 2009.
Commissioner Ciro DePalo (left) takes the oath of office from Commissioner Paul Tonna
While he may be new to the role of District Commissioner, many South Huntington Water consumers need no introduction to Ciro. A long-time Huntington Station resident, Ciro has strong and extensive ties to both the residential and business communities in the Water District. Leaning on the strengths gathered by owning and operating his own business in Huntington, Depalo has served on the Committee For The Betterment of Huntington, has sat on the BOCES Committee for Business Career Development and is also a past President of the Huntington Business Improvement District. Additionally, Ciro is very active with St. Hugh of Lincoln Church, serving on its school board, teaching religion classes there and serving on the Board of Directors of St. Hugh/St. Elizabeth Little League. Commissioner DePalo and his wife Lorraine have four children and three grandchildren.
Welcome aboard, Ciro!
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South Huntington Water District Commissioner Anthony R. Kropp Retires
After ten years of dedicated service to the South Huntington Water District, Commissioner Anthony Kropp retired from his position on December 31, 2008. Commissioner Kropp brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the District, drawing from his long and distinguished career in the United States Army (Brigadier General, retired) as well as from his own very successful contracting firm.
Thanks for all you've contributed to the Water District, Tony - we'll miss you!
Retiring Commissioner Anthony Kropp Accepts Commemorative Plaque At His Final Board Meeting, December 30, 2008.
Witnessing the Award Presentation are, left to right,:
District Counsel Michael McCarthy, District Administrator Richard Wurtz, Commissioner-elect Ciro DePalo, Commissioner Kropp, Commissioner Paul Tonna, Superintendent Kevin Carroll, District Engineer John Molloy
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South Huntington Water District Commissioner Election Results
December 9, 2008
In the Annual South Huntington Water District Elections held on Tuesday, December 9, 2008, Ciro DePalo of Huntington Station, New York was elected to a three-year term as Water Commissioner. Mr. DePalo's term begins January 1, 2009.
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NOTICE OF UPCOMING ELECTION
The annual election for the office of South Huntington Water District Commissioner will be held on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 from 3:00 PM until 9:00 PM. For your convenience, there are two polling places – the North Cafeteria at the Walt Whitman High School on West Hills Road in Huntington and the King of Kings Lutheran Church on Old South Path in Melville. Any resident who has lived in the District for at least 30 days prior to the election and who is a registered voter is eligible to vote for Commissioner.
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Low Water Rates, Low Taxes, With The Highest Level of Service
A hot-button issue on Long Island is the high cost of living, whether it's the cost of goods and services or the cost of local taxes. Let’s examine the impact of the South Huntington Water District on these very important concerns.
South Huntington’s water billing rates remain the lowest on Long Island. Our few and modest rate increases over the years have been fueled mainly by costs beyond our control, including skyrocketing energy costs and strictly regulated water treatment methods. Nevertheless, South Huntington’s water supply is by far the least expensive of your utility bills. Take a look at the chart below which illustrates the comparative utility costs to a typical household in the South Huntington Water District:
A BREAKDOWN OF AN AVERAGE SOUTH HUNTINGTON WATER DISTRICT
HOMEOWNER’S MONTHLY PAYMENTS
FOR COMMON UTILITIES
Similarly, high taxes are always a controversial subject for Long Islanders. We understand that concern at the South Huntington Water District and despite our spiraling costs, we have made a particular effort to keep your taxes low. Take a look at the chart below which illustrates the tax bill of a typical homeowner in the South Huntington Water District and how that their tax dollar is distributed:
A BREAKDOWN OF THE AVERAGE
SOUTH HUNTINGTON WATER DISTRICT HOMEOWNER’S TAX BILL
As South Huntington residents ourselves, we too are concerned about the high cost of living on Long Island. And at the South Huntington Water District, we’re actually doing something about it!
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“HYDRANT DOWN, WATER RUNNING!”
At 2:30 AM on a cold and rainy morning this past January, a car traveling on Melville Road in Huntington Station failed to negotiate a turn, left the pavement and overturned on the front lawn of a residence. Along the way, the vehicle struck a Water District fire hydrant, severely damaging it and unleashing a torrent of water from below.
Alerted to the broken fire hydrant by officers of the Second Precinct, a District emergency response crew was dispatched and arrived on the scene in less than 30 minutes.
The first order of business was to stop the resultant flooding. Much like the small water fixtures in your own home, each fire hydrant has a shut off valve to stop the water for emergencies such as this. The valve, however, is much larger and is buried about 5’ below the pavement. An iron “valve box” with a removable cap, placed on grade, gives access to the buried hydrant valve. Depending on how close this valve box is to the damaged hydrant, the leaking water can make its location and then operation very difficult. In the photo below, emergency responders Mike McGovern (l) and Ken Carsten ( r ) have located the valve box, removed its cap, and inserted a long “key” to engage the valve operator. To give you an idea of how much water the damaged hydrant was originally leaking, the valve at this moment is already more than half-way off!
With the water off, the crew is not yet finished. The high pressure and sheer volume of the leaking water moves large amounts of soil and stones away from the hydrant and out into the street. Invariably, there is a resulting crater-like hole where the hydrant once stood. Before the emergency responders can leave, a temporary cleanup of the road must be made and the hole around the hydrant must be barricaded and made safe until the hydrant can be replaced. In this picture, the shutdown is being completed and crew member Troy Manheim has begun the area cleanup. Notice the sand in the roadway and the broken hydrant in the background. The final task for the evening is to notify the Fire Department that the hydrant is out of service; in an emergency, the Department can then plan to use an alternate hydrant.
Although there are other hydrants in the neighborhood, the South Huntington Water District always gives fire hydrant repairs its highest priority. Within a few days, a District repair crew begins the replacement project. The old hydrant is disconnected from the water main and removed. In the photo below you can see that the heavy bottom flange has been broken away (from about the 2 o’clock position to the 5 o’clock position) from its base by the car’s impact, causing the flood of water.
The existing hydrant connection piping is cleaned and prepared to receive the new fire hydrant. This new fire hydrant is a “traffic-style”, designed to let the upper portion break away in an auto accident. That way, the below ground portion of the hydrant will not be disturbed and a repeat of the earlier flooding condition should be avoided. The upper portion can then be easily repaired or replaced without excavation. This break away section can be seen in the photo below. It is the round, flanged area where the black portion of the hydrant transitions to the red paint. All of the black portion of the hydrant will be below ground. District Foreman Brian O’Donnell directs Senior Mechanic Dave DeGruchy as he lifts the new hydrant for installation.
The piping and new hydrant are disinfected with chlorine and then bolted together. Special care is given to securing the hydrant to the piping connection; tremendous forces can be generated by the pressure and volume of water that the hydrant is designed to flow. Here Maintenance Mechanics Chris Chan and Mike McGovern bolt the hydrant assembly to the water main.
When they are finished, the valve will be turned back on and the crew will check for leaks and proper hydrant operation. The excavation is then backfilled and the area is graded. In a few weeks the surrounding area will have topsoil added, grass seed planted and a fresh coat of paint applied to the hydrant.
Thanks to the professional and timely work of the South Huntington Water District repair personnel, the fire protection for the neighborhood is once again restored.
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Take Care When Disposing Of Unwanted Medications
The South Huntington Water District reminds our residents to not flush their unwanted medications – either prescription or over-the-counter – down the drain. It was once thought that flushing away unsuitable pharmaceuticals kept children and pets safe from accidental poisoning, but the South Huntington Water District reminds residents that this method is now outdated and is potentially harmful to our environment.
In some areas of the world, traces of these medications are finding their way into area lakes, streams, bays and even relatively shallow groundwater. In recent years, ecologists have come to realize that these drugs are having a minor but discernible effect on the aquatic life in the surface waters. Keeping these pharmaceuticals out of the wastewater stream will help ensure that these chemicals do not end up polluting our varied and precious water resources.
The White House Office of National Drug Control recently created a guideline for drug and medication disposal that includes:
· Take unneeded drugs out of their original containers and place them in with your solid waste materials.
· To keep these disposed medications further safe from domestic and wild animals, you can mix them with undesirable items such as kitty litter or coffee grounds. Further, you might wish to place them in impermeable containers such as empty cans or sealable bags.
Recent news stories have highlighted concerns about these same disposed medications finding their way into our drinking water. This issue has long been under study by the various State Health Departments and by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). To date, none of these regulatory agencies has issued testing standards for these constituents nor have they, in fact, determined if they constitute a hazard at all in the minute amounts in the instances where they have been detected. Long Island residents should be aware that the drinking water systems highlighted in the recent news accounts were surface waters, as opposed to our groundwater supply. Long Island’s deep aquifers are less susceptible to this type of pharmaceutical intrusion, being naturally filtered and protected by thick bands of clays, sands and gravels.
Nevertheless, the South Huntington Water District remains vigilant on these issues and is working closely with the USEPA and New York State Health Department on this and other water quality topics. In the interim, we ask your cooperation in the proper disposal of unwanted medications of any type.
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|
2007 Water District
Voting Results |
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Public Informational Meeting
On Monday, August 13, 2007
at 5:00 PM, the Water District will
host an informational meeting at the South Huntington Public
Library located at 145 Pidgeon Hill Road in Huntington Station.
Representatives of the District will be on hand to discuss the Water
District’s request for bond funding in order to make important
infrastructure improvements to three of its existing water supply
sites. All are welcome.
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How would you like to save more than $1,500.00?
Did you know that if you bought 1,000 gallons of a very popular bottled water at your local supermarket it would cost you $1,590.00?
However, if you bought that very same amount of water from the South Huntington Water District, it would cost you a whopping….$0.50!! That’s a cool savings of $1,589.50.
Oh, and by the way, we’ll throw in free delivery of our water right to your home, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no questions asked.
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Our current Annual Water Water Quality Statement is now on-line
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2006 Water District Voting Results
The annual vote for Water District Commissioner was held on Tuesday, December
12, 2006. The results are as follows:
Three-Year Term of Commissioner
George Kopp - 613 Votes
Mark Sciallo - 453 Votes
Commissioner Kopp Re-Elected
Complete Final Year of Open Commissioner Term
Paul Tonna - 704 Votes
Thomas Moore - 191 Votes
Commissioner Paul Tonna Elected
Water District Commissioners Paul Tonna (left) and George Kopp (right) congratulate each other following the annual District election held on December 12, 2006. Commissioner Tonna was elected to complete the term of the late Robert Richmond and Commissioner Kopp was re-elected to a three-year term.
Your Full Board of Water Commissioners, January 2007
Paul Tonna, George Kopp, Anthony Kropp
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Water Main Break!
With more than 260 miles of water main in our distribution system, the occasional water main break is an unfortunate fact of life. But when they do occur, South Huntington’s trained crew of distribution system Mechanics are more than equal to the task. Here are a few scenes from a recent main break in Melville during early January of 2007.
The first job is to shut the water off to the affected section of broken main. The needed valves are located approximately 4 1/2’ below the pavement and operated with a long, t-handled “key”. Here District Mechanic Chris Chan shuts off one of the required valves.
Veteran Maintenance Mechanic Dave DeGruchy operates one of the District’s two backhoes, skillfully and carefully exposing the damaged section of water main.
Before the 8” diameter main can be repaired, the external surfaces must be thoroughly cleaned of soil and scale. Although the flow of water from the broken main has been substantially reduced at this point, we deliberately keep some water pressure on to prevent debris from entering the broken pipe. That protective effort is also aided by dewatering the trench; note the pump hose below the main.
The main break crew is always in motion and not all of the action is at the scene of the break. Excavated wet, muddy fill and broken pavement must be removed from the job site and dry, stable filled returned; this will act as a firm base for a safe roadway restoration. Once that is accomplished, hot asphalt must be picked up and transported to the site, completing the road restoration. Here, Mechanic Will Chavez pilots the District’s dump truck, delivering dry sand to the repair site.
This particular main break is a classic “ring break” or a crack around the circumference of the cast iron 8” main. Since there has been no severe deflection of the pipe ends, it can be repaired with a split, heavy-duty stainless steel and neoprene clamp. When properly installed and tightened, the strong but flexible steel shell will compress the neoprene lining against the water main, sealing off the crack. Here’s a good look at the clamp before installation. Other types of repairs – displaced breaks, longitudinal cracks, “blow-outs”, joint leaks and construction accidents – may very well require that large sections of main be replaced.
The main has been thoroughly cleaned, the clamp centered and the compression bolts are being installed and tightened. District Foreman Brian O’Donnell (right) instructs the District’s newest employee, Mechanic Sean McHugh (left).
When the main valves are first turned back on, the disturbed water may contain small amounts of rust and trapped air. This is quite normal and the resulting discoloration is not a health concern. To more quickly clear up the water, we flush fire hydrants in the vicinity of the repair to bring new water into the area.
Sean gives the thumbs-up – the water is fully back on to the neighborhood and there is not a drop of water from the repaired main. There is still a lot of work to be done, though. The excavation has to be backfilled with clean, dry fill and compacted to prevent settlement. The crew will then add road base material, tamp that and finally pave the site with hot asphalt.
Congratulation to the South Huntington Water District Distribution Crew on another fine job, performed efficiently and safely.
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Water District Employees Honored For Dedicated Service at December, 2006 Holiday Luncheon
Commissioner Tony Kropp presents District Office Manager Dianne Rapczyk with a handsome plaque for her ten years of service with South Huntington Water.
District Superintendent Kevin Carroll (right) congratulates Chief Plant Operator Michael Feeney (left) on his 30th year of employment with the Water District. The two veteran employees share more than sixty years of combined experience at South Huntington Water.
The service awards were presented at the annual District Holiday Luncheon held on December 29, 2006. Left to right are Michael Feeney (30 years), Mary Lou Noonan (5 years), Commissioner George Kopp, Mary Ann Accardi (5 years) and Commissioner Anthony Kropp. Not pictured are employees who also received awards, David Degruchy (25 years) and William Chavez (5 years).
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Dedication Ceremony Of
Newly Constructed Well #20
In Memory Of The Late Commissioner Robert H. Richmond - October, 2006
Commissioner George Kopp delivers opening remarks to the guests, including members of the late Bob Richmond's family. Superintendent Kevin Carroll presented Mrs. Richmond with ceremonial scissors which she used to officially open Plant #20 in Melville.
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