Saratoga County water system again declared safe

PHOTOGRAPHER: Lee Coleman

Tests of Saratoga County’s water system in recent days show that the level of potentially-harmful chlorine by-products has dropped well below limits set by the state Health Department, county officials said today.

Quarterly tests sent to the state Health Department in August showed the county’s water contained 68 parts per billion of halocentric acids, which are chlorine byproducts. The maximum allowed under state regulations is 60 ppb.

Ed Hernandez, an engineer with Albany-based Delaware Engineering, reported to the Saratoga County Water Authority that after the water system had been flushed, samples taken Monday showed that levels of the acids had dropped to less than 50 ppb.

Flushing of the water system, which takes water from the upper Hudson River in Moreau and treats and filters it before sending it into its distribution pipes, started two weeks ago. Waterford Town Supervisor John E. Lawler, chairman of the water authority, said the flushing will continue and a regular flushing program is expected to be implemented to keep water from sitting in the county’s transmission pipe longer than expected.

The county water system’s three municipal customers — the towns of Ballston, Clifton Park and Wilton — have all stopped taking water from the system until the levels of the chlorine by-products are reduced.

If the chlorine by-products remain well below regulatory limits, the water authority will “request our municipal clients to resume buying water,” Lawler said at an authority meeting in the county Municipal Center.