Brick MUA Upgrading Filtration At Water Treatment Plant

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority is planning to go out to bid soon to build an additional filtration system at its water treatment plant that will enhance water quality.

The granular activated carbon system — described by the managing engineer for the project, Patrick K. Cole of H2M Associates, as being like a giant Brita filter — is an upgrade to the existing filtration systems at the William Miller Jr. Water Treatment Plant.

The project, which received approval from the Brick Township Planning Board in December, includes two 5,000-square-foot buildings that will house steel filtration tanks that will contain the granular activated carbon. There will be 12 steel tanks — each tank is 12 feet long by 24 feet high — in each building, all filtering water at the same time, and will give the MUA the capability to filter 16 million gallons of water a day, Cole said. The MUA also had to amend its stormwater permit with the state Department of Environmental Protection, he said.

Typical flow for the Brick MUA is about 8 to 9 million gallons a day, with peak days tapping 14 to 15 million gallons, MUA officials said.

"This will be the final step before te water goes out to the public," Cole said. The Brick MUA water treatment system's current filtration medium is reaching the end of its useful lifespan, he said, so upgrading to the state-of-the-art system now makes sense.

"This had always been part of their (the MUA's) master plan," Cole said.

The MUA had announced its plans to add the filtration system in its newsletter last spring and said the project would take 18 to 24 months to complete. At its November meeting, the MUA's board of directors approved seeking bids for the construction of the project so its administration could move ahead as soon as the Planning Board and DEP approvals and the financing for the project was in place, according to the November minutes.

Granular activated carbon is made from natural materials with high carbon content, such as wood, coal or coconut shells, the MUA said in the newsletter.

At the Planning Board meeting, Cole said the material gets changed every six months, and is very effective at removing both organic and inorganic compounds.

"The enhanced treatment will provide numerous water quality benefits, such as improving treatment efficiency, reducing undesirable tastes and odors, and removing trace levels of man-made chemicals," the MUA newsletter said.

The Brick MUA supplies water for Point Pleasant Boro, Point Pleasant Beach, and parts of Lakewood and Howell in addition to Brick, and its primary water source is the Metedeconk River.

The MUA's reorganization meeting is set for Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018 at 9:30 a.m. in the conference room of the MUA administration building on Route 88 West in Brick.

Brick Municipal Utilities Authority sign on Route 88, via Google Maps