New tanks for drinking water

FALLS VILLAGE — The new water tanks arrived on Beebe Hill on a frigid Thursday morning (Feb.  4).

A small crowd braved the wind chill to watch as the tanks were lifted into place.

Old-timers speculated on when the ancient tanks had been installed. They had arrived by train, and water superintendent Denny Jacobs’ best guess on the year is 1943 or 1944.

Hazel McGuire discovered photographs of the earlier event; Jacobs has them at his garage in town.

Jacobs said the new 30,000-gallon tanks have a special interior surface that is approved for drinking water and prevents rust. The tanks are filled from five wells located in three separate locations.

It is presently a gravity-fed system, from the wells to the customers. Water that isn’t being used in the system is stored in the tanks.

There are around 120 customers on the system.

The next step is to build a pump house (Morck Brothers Building in Falls Village is handling the work). A small pump will help with the water pressure for the customers who are higher up.

Jacobs said, “We had to shut down already for several hours to get the piping in place, so we are hoping to have very minimal downtime when the transfer happens.� That should be sometime early this spring.

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