Outside Water Use Restriction Modified – July 2, 2009.
Effective Immediately, The total ban on the use of lawn sprinklers is lifted.
The revised restriction is now: Two Day a Week - Evenings Only as follows:
EVENINGS ONLY - No Sprinkler use is allowed on any day between the hours of 9 AM and 5 PM.
Even numbered homes - Sprinkler use is allowed between the hours of
5 PM Sunday evening and 9 AM Monday morning and
5 PM Thursday evening and 9 AM Friday Morning.
Odd numbered homes - Sprinkler use is allowed between the hours of
5 PM Saturday evening and 9 AM Sunday morning and
5 PM Tuesday evening and 9 AM Wednesday Morning.
Hand held hose watering is allowed at anytime on any day.
All Bellingham water customers should immediately comply with this mandatory use restriction.
The new evening only use restriction is part of the Mass Department of Environmental (MDEP) requirements and will be a standard for the rest of this year and in future years. This evening only restriction is driven by the fact that use of a sprinkler during the hottest part of the day wastes water and your money. In the middle of the day during the summer month the evaporation rate is so high that most of the water discharged from sprinklers goes up into the atmosphere as water vapor. It is well documented that less than half reaches the roots of the grass or plants you are trying to water.
Further use restriction could be needed if we get hit with a prolonged heat wave, or if mechanic failures occur at any of our key wells.
We received the consent order to pump additional water from Well #12 off of Cliff Road on June 14th. The new pump and controls we installed on June 30th. The addition to our pumping capacity should be enough to meet demand under the two a day / evening only restriction. This should also allow us to complete the last few weeks of our water main flushing.
The two a day restriction is also a requirement of the MDEP consent order that allows us to pump more water from Well #12.
The DPW would like to thank all water customers that complied with the use restriction and ask for the same level of conscious compliance with this modified restriction.
As stated in previous notices, we need the use restrictions this year because of the problems at the Hartford Ave Filtration Plant. The filters are not removing the manganese to a level that is acceptable and we have no desire to pump dirty water into our system. Therefore, we cannot run the Plant or Wells 7 and 8 that feed water to the Plant. The lack of these facilities takes about 0.8 MGD off of our typical summer pumping capacity.
The MDEP consent order has established a time line for us to get the Filtration Plant back on line with a goal of it be operational again by May 15, 2009. Our engineers are working on the Plant and have one filter stripped down to locate the cause of the poor manganese removal. A report on this first level of investigation is due by the end of August.
As we thought before, the Plant will not be on line to help us meet the summer peak demand in 2009.
We do not like to institute use restrictions, but our number one priority has to be public health and safety. Lawn and garden irrigation and other outside uses are important but must be curtailed to maintain water in the standpipes and insure that sufficient water is available for households and fire protection.
Again thank you for your patience.
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