Oxford Township’s first water treatment facility could be constructed by the end of 2004.
Township officials last week voted unanimously to spend up to $61,000 for design proposals for a treatment facility to be located at the Oxford Woods subdivision underground well field.
The Oxford Woods well is the largest of the three underground well fields (the other two are Mickelson Shores and Oxford Oaks) that supply water to the township.
“About half of the water provided to township customers is supplied by the Oxford Woods wells,” according to township engineer Shannon Parry of Rowe Incorporated.
Officials said the treatment facility is needed to reduce the concentration of both iron and arsenic in township water.
“The goal is to reduce iron concentrations to levels that do not cause aesthetic problems,” Parry wrote in a July 3 letter to the township board.
Trustee Shirley Clancy said residents often complain that the “rust/iron content is excessive” in township water.
“Blending of the treated Oxford Woods water with that from the other wells will generally improve the quality of water to the township’s customers,” Parry wrote.
The township’s proposed treatment facility is also meant to reduce arsenic to levels below the new federal standard of 0.010 milligram/liter (or 10 parts per billion [ppb]) for municipal water supplies, which takes effect in January 2006.
As of July 2002, the maximum, minimum and average arsenic levels for each township well field were reported as follows:
n Mickelson Shores – maximum = 26.9 ppb; minimum =10.1 ppb; average =17.0 ppb
n Oxford Woods – maximum = 23.4 ppb; minimum = less than 5.0 ppb; average 13.1 ppb
n Oxford Oaks – maximum = 7.6 ppb; minimum = 1.7 ppb ; average = less than 4.8 ppb
To meet the new federal arsenic standard, “additional treatment plant(s) will be needed or raw water from other wells will need to be piped directly to Oxford Woods for treatment prior to distribution to customers,” Parry noted.
Parry informed township officials that construction of the water plant would begin in spring 2004 and “should be complete by late fall.”
However, some officials expressed their fear that the proposed treatment plant’s location could be in the path of migrating plumes of groundwater contaminated by trichloroethylene (also known as TCE), a toxic solvent compound and known carcinogen used by some former local businesses.
Wells in the Red Barn subdivision were contaminated by a TCE plume in the early 1990s while wells in the Parkhurst Mobile Home Park detected increased levels of TCE last year.
Some officials feared the proposed treatment plant could fall within a plume’s path of migration.
“I don’t want to put a treatment facility in an area that’s going to be contaminated,” said Treasurer Joe Ferrari.
Trustee Charles Kniffen voiced the same concern.
Kniffen noted the current township wells are pumping at “maximum capacity” 24 hours a day all year long.
This is significant because the more the township draws on the groundwater supply, the faster the plumes can move, he said.
Kniffen said he would “hate to put money into a water plant” and “have the plume move” and “shut down the (Oxford Woods) well.”
Clancy told this reporter that DEQ representative Bejamin Matthews has agreed to come to the July 23 township meeting to discuss how far the plumes have migrated, how fast they’re moving and what effect they could have on the Oxford Woods well field.
She pointed out that several studies have indicated that the Oxford Woods well field is protected by a natural hyrdogeological divide, the headwaters of Paint Creek.
If the plumes were to move toward the Oxford Woods well field, Clancy said studies from the late 1990s indicated that “in all likelihood (they) would not” reach and contaminate the wells because they would blocked by the headwaters traveling in the opposite direction
The trustee also noted that the third and most recent well head at Oxford Woods was installed with a wellhead protection plan to protect it against contamination.
The township is also investigating constructing additional well fields on the property it owns at Seymour Lake and Granger roads and on a site in the eastern portion of the Waterstone development near Dunlap Road, Clancy said.
“We believe that the evaluation of potential well sites should be completed this year to allow sufficient time to make sure all water supplied meets the 2006 arsenic standard,” Parry wrote to officials.
Clancy said more wells are needed in the northern portion of the water district to provide “additional capacity” to the growing township.