NEWS

New York wants to use the sun's power to provide clean drinking water for its nine million residents without adding more of the potentially harmful chlorine it uses as a disinfectant. More specifically, New York City officials are building a water disinfection facility some 30 miles north of Manhattan that will use ultraviolet (UV) light to destroy water-borne pathogens such as Escherichia coli, giardia, and cryptosporidium in reservoirs that serve city dwellers.
First proposed in 2003, the city got the ball rolling on the UV disinfection project shortly after the EPA in 2006 tightened restrictions on microbial pathogens allowed in drinking water. The UV facility, set to fire up in 2012, is expected to be the world's largest . When completed, it will consist of 151-million-liter UV disinfection units designed to disinfect up to 2.4 billion gallons (nine billion liters) of water per day.All surface and ground water entering New York City's drinking water distribution system is currently treated with fluoride (pdf) to help prevent tooth decay as well as chlorine to kill deleterious microbes as designated by the New York State Sanitary Code and the SDWA.