The Hicksville Water District announced that it recently received a Gold Engineering Excellence Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York for the installation of two advanced oxidation process treatment systems and four granular activated carbon filters at the district’s Plant 8.
The winners were announced at the 58th Annual Engineering Excellence Awards Gala at the Midtown Hilton in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5. This year’s Engineering Excellence Awards were split into four tiers: platinum, diamond, gold and silver.
H2M architects + engineers nominated the Hicksville Water District for the award.
Representatives from Oceanside, Bayville, Syosset and East Meadow were also given engineering excellence awards in Nassau County.
According to the water district, the plant came online last year and is set to treat emerging contaminants in the community’s drinking water for years. The district’s website said it had previously been taken offline in October 2021.
“It is an honor to be recognized by the ACEC for our accomplishments with Plant 8,” district chairman Nicholas Brigandi said. “We work tremendously hard to make sure that our community receives the highest-quality water service possible, and this new treatment technology ensures that we will continue to do so for generations to come.”
The district said that plant 8 represents an investment of more than $14.1 million, with more than $7.1 million coming from grants, into the community’s drinking water treatment infrastructure. Its award-winning technologies allow the plant to produce four million gallons of drinking water with non-detectable levels of 1,4-dioxane, PFOS and PFOA every day.
Recent guideline changes mandate that drinking water contain less than four parts per trillion of pre- or poly-fluoroalkyl substances, otherwise known as PFAS, by 2029. The synthetic chemicals, which have detrimental effects on human health, were previously regulated at 10 parts per trillion in drinking water.
The water district covers Hicksville and extends into parts of Bethpage, Jericho, Syosset, and Westbury. It also serves portions of East Meadow, Levittown, and Seaford.
The Hicksville Water District provides more than 2 billion gallons of water to nearly 48,000 customers each year, including more than 15,400 homes and businesses, according to its website.
