February 16, 2017
HORNELL, NY – Mitch Cornish updated the Public Works Board Thursday morning on the progress of the sewer projects currently under way. They have just finished their base bid area which is the Broadway Mall to route 36 and down to St Anns Church having cleaned and relined the entire distance. The old clay title piping installed in the late 1800’s was in desperate need of repairs. River Street and Elizabeth Streets have already been cleaned and are now awaiting the new lining that is on order and should be completed in three weeks. Cornish noted that certain sections of these pipes are in really bad shape and risk collapsing unless lined.
Water filtration plant head Rich Dunning told the board that the increase in sewage flow from cleaning the mains has been causing him grief at the plant. There has been an abundance of rags, plastics, solids, and other debris which has put a lot of stress on the soon to be replaced mesh bar filtration screen and the chopping mechanism. Dunning said that they have hired two new workers who are helping the situation immensely. The newly purchased mesh bar screen should be up and running by the end of the summer.
Water Treatment Plant head Lenny Fucci said he is currently working on a solution to the one micron water filters plugging and restricting water flow way too early in their life expectancy. The 8 filters which are over 6 feet long each cost the city around $5000 every time they are replaced and Fucci is looking for something a little more cost effective. The last set filtered roughly 6 million gallons of water before needing replaced which during peak water usage could be a weeks’ time. Fucci noted that going to a larger micron filter is one possible solution.
