TOWN OF WALLKILL Town residents might again this year receive a letter in the mail warning them of increased total trihalomethane levels in their tap water.

The presence of TTMHs, a group of chemical compounds formed during drinking water treatment, higher than the states maximum contaminant level was found again this year in water that is dispersed to homes in the 64 square miles of the town of Wallkill from large tanks in the Washington Heights area off Route 17M, according to Town Supervisor Frank DenDanto.

A little bit of that is not bad; obviously, you don't want a lot of it, DenDanto said. There's a public health criteria we have to meet, and we are just cresting to the place where it's very likely we're not going to meet it again.

In August 2018, the towns water and sewer administrator, Timothy Grogan, sent out a letter warning Consolidated Water District No. 1 residents of the levels of TTHMs being above drinking water standards, but also alerting them that they do not need to use bottled water as an alternative to tap.

The state TTHMs standard is for no more than 80 micrograms per liter; the towns water supply had 88.5 micrograms per liter in a sample from May 15, 2018.

This is not an immediate risk," Grogan wrote. "If it had been, you would have been notified immediately.

"However, some people who drink water containing trihalomethanes in excess of the MCL over many years may experience problems with their liver, kidneys, or central nervous system, and may have an increased risk of getting cancer."

A project to scrub-clean the insides of the tanks and install an agitator into the two 1-million-gallon water storage tanks will soon begin as the town accepted a bid from Pitingaro & Doetsch Consulting Engineers at its Jan. 23 meeting. The project is estimated to cost $250,000, DenDanto said.

The agitator will keep the water moving in the tanks, preventing significant sediment buildup, and a good cleaning will take care of the underlying problem to prevent the increased TTHMs levels from occurring again.

There will be an announcement. We'll be sending our letters again, DenDanto said. That will cause people to have concern, but they shouldn't be because at the end of the day, it's really precautionary.

Between 2012 and 2017, the town of Wallkill's water district had a TTHMs measurement of 58.1 parts per billion, which also equates to micrograms per liter, according to Environmental Working Group, a research advocacy group that promotes clean drinking water.

rettlinger@th-record.com

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Town of Wallkill seeks to prevent chemical buildup in drinking water - Times Herald-Record