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March 19, 2008

Flush with success

Increased water pressure helps in Methuen

Stephanie Chelf/Staff Writer

METHUEN — Most people wouldn’t get excited about flushing a couple of toilets at once, but Domenic Nicosia was.

When the city’s new water tank opened recently, serving the city’s north end, Nicosia saw an immediate improvement in his water service.

“We’re very satisfied,” Nicosia said. “We were running around flushing toilets, we couldn’t believe it.”

Nicosia and his wife and two sons moved into a new house off Washington Street a year ago and the water pressure was terrible.

“We didn’t know the water pressure was like that when we bought it,” Nicosia said. “You couldn’t use two bathrooms at the same time. If the washing machine was on, forget it.”

Thanks to the new tank, Nicosia said the pressure is perfect. He said the project was worth the $6 million.

The water system upgrade means better water pressure for some 2,000 homeowners.

The 4 million gallon water tank, built on a wooded two acres off Hampstead Street, along the Salem, N.H., border, opened a few weeks ago and is earning rave reviews.

“It’s better service for people at higher elevations,” said city engineer Frank Russo.

The new tank is part of a larger water improvement project. On Burnham Road, the water treatment plant is in the middle of a $20 million renovation.

Residents of Morgan Drive, a higher elevation subdivision, can now ditch booster pumps they installed to provide decent water pressure. That will save those homeowners on electricity costs.

“Everyone in this area will have better pressure,” said Councilor Joseph Leone, who lives on Morgan Drive and represents the area. “It’s the difference between a decent shower and a trickle out of the shower head. My pressure was so slow I had to have the water booster pump or I wouldn’t be able to live in the house. Now I can live without the pump.”

As part of the project, the city built the new water tank that is 375 feet above sea level, replaced 18 miles of water lines, and installed a new pump station on Howe Street.

The new tank also will improve pressure to fire hydrants and more water storage, officials said.

“If we have a fire somewhere in town, we’ll have the capabilities to sustain the system (citywide),” Russo said.

Meanwhile, renovations to the water treatment plant will be completed in early fall.

Russo said the upgrades are needed to meet federal regulations and replace equipment that is 25 years old.

“It’s about redundancy,” Russo said, of the additional equipment that will boost capacity and allow the plant to keep operating in case one filter breaks or if power goes out. “New EPA rules for treatment are coming into effect and to meet those we have to upgrade the facility.”

“It’s all going to be controlled by the computer,” said Water Superintendent Mike Sheehan, who manages 13 employees at the treatment plant. “Instead of going to the pump and push a button it can be done by computer. It will give us better ability to control the system and keep better records.”

The two expansion projects will be paid for by residents through their water bills, which increased in 2007 for the first time in 15 years.

The Water Department’s increasing operating costs have drained savings, causing the need for the water rate increase, officials said.

Ratepayers will start paying back the loan for the treatment plant project — a $1.5 million bill — in the next fiscal year, which starts in July.

“Next year we’ll definitely have to look at bringing rates up again,” Russo said. “The plant is 25 years old. We need the upgrade to prove to (federal and state regulators) that we are producing quality water and show we’re meeting those standards.”

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