City Discharged to the River

From: “Steinebach, Donna” <dsteinebac@port-orange.org>
Date: July 22, 2013, 2:22:01 PM EDT
To: Ted Noftall <ted@tednoftall.com>
Cc: “Kisela, Greg” <gkisela@port-orange.org>, “Troutman, Tom” <ttroutman@port-orange.org>
Subject: RE: Discharge to the River

Good Afternoon Ted,
In my earlier response to you I did not fully explain that we also had the valve turned off on the reclaimed line that flows to the reservoir for several hours on Saturday. This was done to assist utility field crews locate a line break in the Williamson Boulevard and Willow Run area. As it turned out, the break was in a potable line, not the reclaimed line. The reservoir levels have been watched carefully for weeks now as we have been approaching permit limits. When the tank levels at the plant neared full on Saturday, it became apparent that the most prudent course of action was to exercise the option under the City’s FDEP permit to discharge into the river. Even if the reclaimed line had not been shut off during the leak investigation, a discharge to the River was imminent.

Good Morning Ted,
Customer demand for reclaimed water has been extremely low over the past several months. We have not had enough customer demand to allow us to pump out of the reservoir for the past two months. The reservoir lakes are at their permitted capacity (40 ft.). Once all of our available storage facilities became full, we needed to discharge into the Halifax River.

Donna,
Just a curiosity.
Why wasn’t the “ heavier than normal rain water “ pumped out to the well field reclaimed lakes rather than into the river ??
Ted