Hilltop Wellfield Reconstruction Project Completed and Substantially Increases Town Water Supply
Wappinger, NY – The Town of Wappinger Government is extremely proud to announce that a reconstruction project to revitalize town wells and increase capacity has been completed. Yesterday, Supervisor Richard L. Thurston toured the town’s Hilltop Wellfield Facility to review the progress of the recently completed well reconstruction project that was authorized by the Wappinger Town Board in 2020. Mike Tremper from CAMO Pollution Control and Town Engineer Tim Moot, Fourth Ward Councilman Al Casella, and Dutchess County Legislator Joseph D. Cavaccini joined Supervisor Thurston on a very educational tour of the facility.
From 1970 to 1995, the Hilltop Wellfield was the only waterworks facility for the Town’s largest water district, thus the facility was strained for a number of decades. Supervisor Thurston and the Town Board determined that reconstructing the strained well field was a top priority as “Well one” out of service as it was deemed below the flood plain, “Well two” out of service as it collapsed, “Well three” was producing water but a video inspection revealed it was on the verge of collapsing, and “Well five” was producing at capacity. In summary, 75% of the well field was out of service. In addition to these problems the old piping in the well field could not stand up to pressure required by the filtration system, resulting in an inefficient system.
With the new project is complete, three new wells have been drilled and connected to the system. Average production from each new well is 200gpm (gallons per minute), this combined with the 300gpm from Well 5. The new wells added 600gpm plus Well 5’s production exceeds our DEC permit of 800gpm, a position the Town of Wappinger not been in twenty years. The water quality is excellent and with the installation of new piping in the well field, we can improve the efficiency of the filters.
Today, the Town of Wappinger is leading many municipalities with a strong water source with three efficient and clean well fields with enough capacity and redundancies to prevent drought, and other catastrophes.
