The town has begun buying water from the Saratoga County Water Authority for the first time since high levels of potentially harmful chlorination by-products were found in the water in August.
The Town Board met Tuesday with acting Water Authority Executive Director Ed Hernandez and agreed to resume buying 150,000 gallons a day, the minimum required under its contract.
Town Supervisor Patti Southworth said the board believes flushing being done on the system and other measures the authority has taken have lowered the levels of haloacetic acids in the water to acceptable levels.
“We’ll take the minimum and do more testing with the Water Authority,” Southworth said Thursday.
Ballston also buys water from the town of Glenville, and had used Glenville water exclusively since early September, when it stopped buying from the authority.
Ballston’s decision means two of the three towns that buy water from the authority are now taking water again.
Wilton won’t resume buying county water until it makes improvements to its own water storage system, but in the interim has agreed to pay for county water, as required by contract.
The Clifton Park Water Authority resumed buying water from the county authority several weeks ago. The authority’s largest customer, the GlobalFoundries computer chip plant in Malta, never stopped buying.
The towns halted purchases after the authority in August had readings of haloacetic acids above the 60 parts-per-billion federal standard. Long-term exposure to high levels is thought to cause health problems.
The acids are a byproduct of chemical reactions between chlorine used to disinfect raw water and organic materials such as rotting leaves.
Since flushing of the system and other measures began, the most recent round of samples sent to five different laboratories yields results between 44 and 59 ppb, authority officials said.
“The results are all below the limits,” said Water Authority Chairman John E. Lawler, R-Waterford.
The authority is producing about 2.5 million gallons per day at its water treatment plant in Moreau, which takes water from the Hudson River.
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