The first of 56 UV-irradiating steel-disinfection chambers being installed in the DEP's new ultraviolet Disinfection Facility in Westchester County. Photo via the DEP's Facebook page.
Beginning in 2012, all the water from the Catskills-Delaware watershed that is destined for NYC taps will first make a pit stop in Westchester County, to be bombarded with ultraviolet rays in what the New York City Department of Environmental Protection is calling the "largest ultraviolet disinfection facility in the world."
In a press release sent out today, the DEP announced that the first giant UV chambers destined to zap that water have been installed. Each of the disinfection units (those silvery angular sausages in the picture above) will be able to treat 40 million gallons of water per day. The whole disinfection plan is designed to treat 2 billion gallons a day. Here's how it will work:
The 56 UV units consist of stainless steel disinfection chambers, each chamber holding 210 UV lamps that will treat the water as it passes through. The flow through the facility will be controlled by a series of 84-inch diameter valves that have been specially manufactured for the project. Approximately 75% of the estimated 130,000 cubic yards of concrete has been placed for the project. All water flowing through the system is conveyed by gravity.
This watery Rube Goldberg machine is designed to give New Yorkers (and the EPA) more peace of mind about their unfiltered drinking water supply, which is already treated with chlorine but otherwise delivered straight from the Catskills pretty much untouched:
... once completed, [the UV facility] will provide a federally-required secondary level of disinfection against potentially harmful microbiological contaminants such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia, though these pathogens do not currently pose a risk to New York City’s water supply.
Wondering how much this giant watershed tanning bed costs? $1.6 billion.
