New Filtration Plant at Albany, New York

Abstract

Previous to the construction of the new water supply for the City of Albany, the water supply had been obtained from the Hudson River. After filtration the water was pumped through low lift and high lift pumps. The low lift pumps discharged into Bleecker Reservoir at an elevation of 242 feet. The high lift pumps discharged into Prospect Reservoir at an elevation of 297 feet. The water from this higher reservoir and in the high level system did not furnish sufficient pressure to adequately serve the high level districts in the western part of the City, pressure being barely sufficient to deliver water to the second floor at the highest point. The new system, bringing water a distance of 20 miles from the Helderberg Mountains southwest of the City, was designed to deliver water by gravity into a new distribution reservoir at an elevation of 351 feet. The new system has therefore dispensed with all pumping and it will save the citizens of Albany, through operating and other costs, between three hundred and four hundred thousand dollars per year, with a water consumption of 20 million gallons per day. When this consumption is increased to 30 million gallons per day, the annual saving would be well over one-half million dollars per year.