Sewickley Herald

              The Herald
The Sewickley Valley's Home-News Weekly
Vol. 34.   No. 15.
SEWICKLEY, PA., FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1937
Price 5 Cents
[TOFWTOW
COMPLETES IMPROVEMENTS
 "U1HTOC
 ■■■■■■»-]__>
Edgeworth Water  Company  Spends
$65,000
With the exception of some painting
and a few odd jobs, the new wing of
the Edgeworth Water Company's pumping station at the foot of Chestnut
Street, Edgeworth, is completed. The
addition, whieh houses the new softening beds and filters to remove manganese from the water, is part of the
improvements made to the system at a
eost of $65,000, according to W. O.
Brock, superintendent of the water
company. The open reservoirs were
covered with a special concrete top; a
new booster station was constructed to
pump water from the reservoirs to the
new 93,000-gallon water tank on the
Singer estate; new mains were laid on
Chestnut Street and Edgeworth Lane.
A new floor was laid over the entire
pumping station and the grounds graded and landscaped. The new softening
plant, which was placed in operation
November 3rd, is now supplying softened water, whieh will not stain clothing
or plumbing fixtures, to all consumers
of the company. Water is pumped from
the wells in the river to the crenothrix
or equalizer basin after being chlorinated. Passing through one and a half
inches of gravel, the water is freed
of any foreign matter that might have
been pumped up from the wells.
A percentage of the water flows from
the equalizer basin, at the rato of
380,000 gallons in every twenty-four
hours, according to T. I. Hatton, engineer at the plant, to the two zeolite
softening filters, where it passes
through 40 inches of salt-treated sand
and ten inches of gravel. The water
from the filters is of zero hardness, too
soft to be used satisfactorily, so it is
mixed with water flowing from the
equalizer beds through the manganese
filter.   A total of 900,000 gallons every
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This scenic tower on the Singer estate performs the same utilitarian
task as an unsightly rounded steel tank supported by a framework of
open steel beams — it holds water, at sufficient elevation to give pressure
to homes on the hilltop. The tank in the tower was replaced with one
holding 93,000 gallons, by the Edgeworth Water Company last summer;
a new main was laid from the reservoir to the tower and an auxiliary
automatic pumping station installed.
2_ hours, flows into the clear well, '
where the water is thoroughly mixed
and then pumped directly to the mains,
with only the surplus going to the
reservoirs. After treatment, the water
has a hardness of SO to 90 parts in a
million gallons.
The zeolite filters are re-vitalized by
the uso of a brine solution and the 30
inches of zeolite sand in the manganese
filters are vitalized every four days
with a solution of potassium permanganate. The filters are washed by
water forced up from the bottom of
the beds. Water for this purpose is
stored in a steel tank with a capacity
of about 1S,000 gallons, set up on steel
girders in the gable of the new wing.
There is a maze of pipes, mains, new
pumps, tanks and other equipment in
the large excavated room under the
new wing, reached by a new platform
and door through the wall of the old
well.
The interior walls of the new wing
are finished in yellow brick and the
exterior is of brick and stone, to match
the older portion of the pumping station. Marble tops are laid on the tops
of tho filter bed walls and control
levers and meters at each filter bed, are
of shining chromium. Modern in every
way, tho new plant and other additions
have corrected many deficiencies of the
old system, with no increase in rates,
although the operating expense has been
increased.
As the engines operating the pumps
use natural gas as fuel, the station was
able to go on pumping water even
though electric current was off during
the flood last spring. Barricaded doors
and plugged ventilators, plus pumps,
enabled the hard-working erew to keep
all but a few inches of water out of
the station, although outside it was
22 inches above the floor level. Only
eight feet of water gathered at tho
foot of the deep pit under the station.
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3fow  Cdgewortl) (Bets Soft, pxim Water
A view of the Edgeworth Water Company's pumping station, showing
tthe new wing, extending to the left from the older portion of the
building. The new wing, which is just receiving the finishing touches,
contains the new softening beds and tho filters which remove tho
manganese.
The now wing under construction, showing the heavy concrete construction of tho walls of the filter beds, which are quite deep and are
underlaid with a maze of mains, pipes, valves and storage tanks, The
steel beam is one of several used to support a huge tank holding water
for washing the beds, as well as the roof of the new wing.
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