Manor Water Plant to be Operational by Summer 2017

 

by Jonathan Weaver

About 2,800 water customers throughout middle-Armstrong County (such as in Manor Township, Rayburn Township and Kittanning Township), will continue to have premium drinking water from the Manor Township Joint Municipal Authority next year after its new plant is completed.

Officials christened the spot of the new plant – directly behind the current Quay Street plant – Thursday with gold-plated shovels.

Water Authority Manager April Winklmann said the Authority will no longer need the NPDES permit to send brine to the Allegheny River once the plant is operational.

“It’s the first plant permitted in the State for pellet softening – a zero discharge plant,” Winklmann said. “The only byproduct that we’ll have in the process is a sand pellet with a calcium coating on the outside of it – which we’re then going to make available to farmers and they can spread it on their fields.

“It’s a very ecologically-friendly process.”

Based on a double-blind taste test, officials determined the water taste will not differ in the future based on the process change.

Vice-Chairman Ed Houston and Assistant Secretary/Treasurer Jacqueline Smith (both Manor Township representatives) praised Winklmann for her work on the project so far.

“This has been an ongoing plan for a long time, but we just never got everything together until now,” Houston said.

Winklmann said officials were considering the current-ion exchange model when she started four years ago, but she introduced the pellet softening approach after reviewing it with a different company.

She expects more municipalities to consider pellet softening – a process used extensively around the world in Holland, Japan and France - in the future.

Black and Veatch Corporation Project Manager Dianne (SOME-EGGO) Sumego also applauded Winklmann and other Authority members for being progressive in their approach. Sumego said there are only “a handful” of similar water systems across the country.

“It’s been a very unique experience to be able to work with Manor Township on this project,” Sumego said. “You’re probably not going to find someone more passionate than April.”

With two rate increases during the past four years, Winklmann said the project’s construction may necessitate further increases.

“I think customers should always expect that there will be rate increases across all utilities – water is a very undervalued commodity. People take it for granted,” Winklmann said. “It’s much more expensive to buy bottled water or bring it home than it is to have water served at your tap.

“This project and other ongoing costs of course will have impacts, but we do our best to try and manage our costs and to do things not extravagantly, but simply and efficiently.”

Last week, the municipal authority closed on a low-interest $8.5 million PennVEST loan.

Bankson Engineers’ Kevin (ZEK-IL-HAITI) Szakelyhidi helped design the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) portion of the new plant.

“The Authority will be able to, through a computer, monitor the plant, the system, the tanks and make adjustments if need be,” Szakelyhidi said. “It’ll give them a much-clearer picture of what’s going on in the system than what they have right now.”

Some local municipalities that upgraded to SCADA systems include the Kittanning Suburban Joint Water Authority and the Kittanning-Plumcreek Water Authority.

Bankson Engineers has represented the Authority since it formed 60 years ago.

Senator Don White, part of the PennVEST board of directors, congratulated Authority members.

“Welcome to the 21st century,” White said.

Thomas Construction, of Grove City, is the general contractor for the project and already has a job trailer on-site.

Officials hope to be “substantially complete” by June 2017. Today is the notice to proceed and foundation construction is expected by mid-May.

Winklmann added that the new plant will include 200,000 gallons of on-site storage of water and is designed to easily add a third reactor and filter.

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