Water Quality Remains High in the HWD
The Hicksville Water District (HWD) believes it is important to update residents on the quality of their water. As such, the District is proud to announce that it has made tremendous strides in wellhead treatment for emerging contaminants over the last five years. As talks of the new regulations for emerging contaminants began in 2018, the HWD was aggressive in its pursuit of water treatment technology, all of which was done despite issues presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and significant problems plaguing the supply chain of treatment materials. A half-decade later, a majority of the District’s affected wells have wellhead treatment installed as residents continue to receive safe, clean drinking water.
“The health and safety of our residents’ drinking water is the foremost priority of the Hicksville Water District,” said HWD Chairman William Schuckmann. “We are proud to say that all of our drinking water since emerging contaminant regulations were set in place has met or surpassed all state drinking water quality standards. We never rested on our laurels throughout the entire process and will continue to provide our residents with the highest-quality water available.”
Even before New York State set maximum contaminant levels (MCL) standards for emerging contaminants in 2020, the HWD was hard at work, pursing the installation of Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) systems and Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) at all well sites containing water above the MCL. The District estimated that the infrastructure improvements would cost roughly $70 million total. However, it was determined to pass as little of this cost off to ratepayers as possible. District officials were persistent in their pursuit of government grants to cover costs of the projects. These efforts have resulted in the acquisition of approximately $36.7 million in grant funding to date, cutting the cost to residents by more than half.
Despite the success of its efforts over the last several years, the HWD continues to push forward in its mission in ensuring residents receive safe drinking water. The District expects to have new AOP treatment systems up and running at two more of its plants this fall. With these systems coming online, the HWD will have 10 wells from which it can distribute clean water to its residents.
