Making a Splash

摘要

When state and county officials gathered in West Nyack, N.Y., Oct. 24 to formally open Rockland County's new $9 million Lake DeForest Water Treatment Plant upgrade, they may not have realized the national implications of the event. But the signs were certainly there, floating right on the surface. Delivered in just 7 months on a tight, 70x85-foot site at the foot of the DeForest Dam, the fast-track project doubled the 39-year-old plant's capacity to 20 mgd, thanks primarily to the first American application of space-saving AquaDAF treatment technology. "We are always searching for creative ways to increase the county's water supply," says Rockland County executive C. Scott Vanderhoef. Another goal at Lake DeForest was to improve the taste of the product, he adds. To date, reviews from the plant's 250,000 customers, including the local Rockland Journal News, have been very positive. On Oct. 25, the paper's online edition quoted one resident of New City, N.Y., as saying that her tap water in the past used to smell "putrid," but now already it was "100 percent better... a big, big difference."