The Treatment Building gets the Treatment

Any of you who have shared "water duty" in the past year or two will be aware of the slowly deteriorating condition of the walls in the Treatment Building. Finally, with summer rapidly disappearing, some time on the maintenance schedule was set aside for some work on this part of the system.

There are (at least) 2 problems with the building as it was constructed: wood frame walls sitting on a concrete slab and wall finishing of drywall sheets, neither suitable for a building where
there is so much water on the floor and chlorine fumes in the air. These conditions have joined forces to start rot on one bottom wall plate and most of the drywall is crumbling from the high humidity. Recently, two volunteers removed several sections of crumbling drywall, installed plywood in its place, did some painting and caulked along the wall/floor seam to prevent water getting into the wall again.

Over the past week or so, the inside of the building has taken on a new, fresh look (at least some of the walls have, so far). New shelving is being installed, old shelving is in the process of getting some paint, pump switches have been moved to a more convenient location, and wiring has been located to facilitate enhanced pump timers and/or automatic shutoff systems. Some storage is now available for a few small replacement parts that are needed occasionally in that location: canister "O" rings, injector line foot valves, canister drain valves, etc.

As well, the floor has received a coat of new paint, corrosion on some pipes and connections has been covered over with paint, the door has been stained and trimmed to reduce sticking and new filter canister drain buckets have been obtained. All that remains, for this summer, is to stain the outside of the building. Next summer, the plan is to put on a new metal roof and complete the drywall replacement.

A similar treatment is being planned for the pressure building by the reservoir. The next time you're in the building, take note of the changes, just a few of the things needed to maintain a 30-year-old system.