Water from the Babson and Goose Cove reservoirs is again flowing through the city's water system, refreshing supplies of drinking water depleted after a water treatment facility failed over the weekend.
Round-the-clock weekend work on the Babson treatment plant restored service to the reservoirs Sunday evening, but the emergency ban on outdoor water consumption remains in effect as the system recovers, city officials said yesterday.
Activities such as outdoor car washes, lawn watering, exterior house cleaning and filling pools, first prohibited on one of the hottest days of the year, will remain in place indefinitely. Water discoloration is still possible because of continuing changes in the flow directions and sources, but no loss of pressure is expected.
Yesterday, Gloucester continued to receive its last infusions of water from neighboring communities while it rebuilt its reserves — something that could take another few days, Public Works Director Michael Hale said.
"We feel good about where we are today," Hale said yesterday. "Our reserve is still low, 4.5 feet at Bond Hill (water storage) out of 15 feet. Once we get back to 8 feet we can do more repairs."
Gloucester, blessed with plentiful natural reserves of fresh water, found itself unable to access those supplies Saturday with both of its primary but well-worn water treatment plants incapacitated.
The West Gloucester plant at Essex and Magnolia avenues, fed by Haskell, Dykes and Wallace ponds, has been offline for most of the summer because of scheduled maintenance.
When contractors running the Babson plant reported elevated levels of sediments in water entering the system, officials were forced to shut it down and declare an emergency.
At that point, the only internal water supply available to the city was the recently activated Klondike Reservoir in Bay View, which the city spent $4 million to outfit with a new treatment plant in 2001. But, filled with 90 million gallons of the clearest water on the island, the Klondike is only authorized to produce 1 million gallons a day, around a third of the water the city pumps on an average summer day. So Gloucester was forced to ask its Cape Ann neighbors for help.
Over the weekend, Rockport, Manchester and Essex all pumped water into the city system, keeping water pressure up to normal levels, according to all reports.
The Babson treatment plant, built in 1964, has had trouble dealing with sediments for years, Hale said.
The water in the Babson Reservoir itself contains more sediments and organic matter than other local reservoirs, as evidenced by its reddish brown tint.
The treatment plant collects water entering the system in two large tanks, where a coagulant is added that helps sediments separate from the liquid and collect at the bottom. There the sediments supposed to be cleared away by a series of paddles. But the paddles have never worked properly over the years, resulting in sediment build-up at the bottom of the tank.
From those tanks, the water is tested and then enters the treatment process, where it is filtered and treated chemically and tested again.
The problems at Babson began in the two tanks, where Hale said the sediment levels in water coming out of the tanks was higher than what is allowed by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The segment-filled water, while not harmful, never made it into further treatment or the water supply.
To fix the problem, the Department of Public Works drained one of the two tanks and cleaned it out — a process Hale said is usually done each fall after the city switches to West Gloucester water in a process that can take a month.
The other tank will be emptied out and cleaned, Hale said, once the city's reserves of treated water are back up to comfortable levels.
Since the cleaning, water entering the system has returned to normal sediment levels, Hale said.
The emergency marks the first time the city has taken advantage of the Klondike, which first became operational in 2005, but has been virtually unused this year.
A former granite quarry with crystal-clear water used as an untreated water supply for decades until state water regulations arrived in the 1980s, the Klondike was considered a boondoggle by some because of its high price tag and infrequent use.
Since 2005, it has been turned on only long enough to retain its permit, but Hale said this year it is being truly utilized for the first time.
"With Babson down, we only had Klondike," Hale said. "In the past we have only run it to keep it active."
Even though it has been sparingly used, the Klondike is the most modern of the city's water treatment plants. While it must be manually operated now, the city is hoping that the state will soon clear it to be run remotely via laptop computer.
Patrick Anderson can be reached at panderson@gloucestertimes.com
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