Village to repair complex’s water tank

By MARTIN WILBUR

A leak discovered at the water tank used by the Mount Kisco Chase residential community will be repaired by the village as local officials insisted that there is no threat to the community’s water supply.

Emergency work has already been approved to stop the loss of water from the 250,000-gallon tank that is on a shared easement located on the complex’s grounds, said Village Manager Ed Brancati.

Mount Kisco worked with its engineers to formulate a plan that calls for installing two new pumps at the pump station and bypassing pressure-sustaining valves to the tank, Brancati said. Currently, the village has been looking to source all of the parts and equipment needed to execute the temporary arrangement while long-term repairs are completed. Brancati is hopeful that conversion can be done within a week. 

“What this will do is allow the Stratford pump station to mimic the tank and provide adequate volume and pressure to mimic what is generated by the tank now for the residents of the Chase,” Brancati said. “That will enable us then to take the tank offline, which will stop the leaking and allow us to finalize scope and go out to bid and make all the repairs to that tank.”

Mayor J. Michael Cindrich said once there is the hookup with the pump station, the village will examine the tank to learn why it is leaking. About 10 years ago, a tank on another property in the community also leaked, spilling about 500,000 gallons of water. 

“With the Chase subdivision, I want to assure residents there that there is work being done — and I didn’t realize that the water was leaking that way,” Cindrich said. “The work being done is going to require sophisticated variable speed pumps to keep the water pressure adequate for that particular area while the tank is completely drained and we do exploration inside the tank to see what the issue is.”

Cindrich also questioned why the tank was losing water, something that generally happens because of age. However, the 86-home Mount Kisco Chase opened in 2002. The village forced the developer of the community, Toll Brothers, to build the water tank in order to gain approval because of the frequent water issues in the village.

The mayor also stressed that the leak from the Chase water tank has no impact on the water emergency that he declared for the village on Tuesday and immediately went into effect. There had been a local report that suggested there was a connection, which initiated questions and comments from residents.

Brancati said that while the leak appears substantial, the rate of water loss does not threaten the village’s supply. He estimated the leak to be at about two gallons a minute, which over a full year would amount to about 0.2% of the water that Mount Kisco produces.