Town Council Plans Disinfection System Testing

Town councilors are planning to test a new water disinfection system on an old well, with the chance of having a more stable and cleaner water supply within the year, The Westerly Sun reported.

The system in question, Miox, is a mixed-oxidant disinfection system that is approved for use in more than a dozen states. It charges saltwater particles with electricity to form oxidants.

Councilors have been eyeing a switch Rhode Island's disinfection system to Miox from a traditional chlorine-based system for about a year, The Westerly Sun reported. Because the system has never been used in the state, however, the town will have to run a pilot test, pumping the water to waste and testing the water quality.

Miox tests would be run at a well in the White Rock area that has been offline for about 10 years because of the potential of coloform contamination, Councilor Christopher Duhamel told The Westerly Sun.

Duhamel said the well had been tested since it was brought offline and was found to be fine. Town officials have said that during the tests, the town will pump four to five hundred gallons of water a minute through the well. The tests could begin by late July, Duhamel said.

If the well could be brought back online, it could add an extra one million galoons per day to the town's water supply.

Source: The Westerly Sun (Rhode Island)