Newmarket moved a step closer to finding a solution to the town's water treatment problems last week. The Town Council discussed four possible water treatment options during a public work session, including the restoration of a sand bed filtration system in Follet's Brook and a series of temporary upgrades to the town's water treatment facility.

Gerald Lang, a civil engineer with the Rockingham County Conservation District, presented the Council with a plan to restore a sand bed filtration system at Follet's Brook. Lang said Follet's Brook could yield 49,000 gallons of water a day; the town uses a total of 450,000 gallons a day.

The filtration system would cost $48,000 to restore, but that amount could be reduced if the town does some of the installation work itself. The new filtration system includes an intake pipe covered by a sand and gravel mixture, along with a "beaver deceiver," which will keep beavers from damming the brook. However, any water that passes through the filtration system must also go through the town's water treatment plant.

The treatment plant draws water from the Lamprey River and has operated intermittently since 2000. High levels of organic contaminants in the river have made the water difficult to treat and the plant costly to run. The town currently draws much of its water from two wells.

During the meeting, Mark Morin of Metcalf & Eddy, an engineering firm that has been studying water treatment options for the town, presented three temporary fixes for the water treatment plant.

The three solutions are Miex Doc, a magnetic ion exchange resin that draws organic carbon out of the raw water supply; chloramination, in which ammonia is added to chlorine to disinfect water; and reverse osmosis, where organic carbon is removed from the treated water through a semi-permeable membrane.

Keeping capital costs low and maintaining the same water source were some of the factors that went into selecting possible fixes, Morin said. Though he wouldn't specify a price tag, Morin said it would cost under $1 million to implement any one of the temporary solutions. Only minor modifications to the existing plant would be necessary, according to Morin. It would take about a year to set up the Miex Doc or reverse osmosis systems, while chloramination could be implemented much sooner.

Morin said further delay is dependent on how well the town's wells perform. "If you want to hold off, you have to assume some risk," he said.

"We need Follet's Book, we need the wells and we need the river," said council chairman Brian Hart.