AWWA ACE63251

The City of Albany (City), New York has taken a proactive approach to achieve its general mission to provide the highest quality water possible to its customers by upgrading treatment and operations at Loudonville Reservoir. The first phase of the water quality improvement project was the construction of a 40 million gallon per day (MGD) ultraviolet (UV) disinfection facility. The UV disinfection facility was installed to operate in conjunction with the existing chlorine disinfection facility at the site. Incorporation of the UV facility provides multiple barrier disinfection and facilitates compliance with upcoming requirements for uncovered storage under the Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2ESWTR). Construction of the UV facility began in August 2002, and full-scale continuous operation commenced on April 2, 2003. As of the date of this report, the Loudonville Reservoir UV facility is the largest operating UV disinfection facility in a drinking water application within New York State. Use of this technology in the drinking water industry continues to grow and will further expand after the LT2ESWTR is finalized. The Albany UV Treatment Facility was constructed and is operated as part of the City's water quality enhancement program being implemented at Loudonville Reservoir. The UV facility is part of a dual-barrier disinfection strategy to maximize protection of public health and is one aspect of the City's ongoing risk mitigation efforts at Loudonville Reservoir to comply with the upcoming LT2ESWTR. The LT2ESWTR will require systems with uncovered finished water reservoirs to: cover the finished water reservoir; treat reservoir discharge to the distribution system to achieve 4-log virus inactivation; or, receive a determination from the State or Primacy Agency that existing risk mitigation is adequate. Elements of the City's current risk mitigation include: ongoing water quality monitoring; annual draining and cleaning of the reservoirs; periodic batch chlorination of the reservoirs; perimeter access fencing and 24-hour security surveillance; bird wires; diversion of runoff; re-chlorination; and, UV disinfection. In late 2002, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) issued Program Opportunity Notice (PON) 723-02, Municipal Water and Wastewater Technology, which specifically encouraged projects that targeted energy optimization/evaluation of UV disinfection systems. The City of Albany and Malcolm Pirnie realized the unique opportunity that the City's recently constructed UV facility offered with regard to data collection and energy efficiency assessment and improvement. This project, entitled "Optimizing the Energy Efficiency of UV Disinfection through On-Site Validation and control Equipment Maintenance", was funded by NYSERDA under PON 723-02. The project began in late July 2003. Much of this paper is based on the preliminary findings from that ongoing study. Includes 2 references, tables, figures.