Dino Braglia
Water Superintendent
The Elmwood Park Water Department is located at 7418 West
Fullerton. The pump house is a twenty-four hour a day
operation. Elmwood Park receives its water from the City of
Chicago. It is then stored in our two million gallon
reservoir. On a hot day the Water Department may pump out as much as
four million gallons of water in a twenty-four hour period.
There are four pumps that work together, but in different aspects in
order to provide the town with the water it needs.
The water reservoir is located under Fullerton Skate Park and is
inspected on a regular basis.
Liquid Engineering is a company specializing in potable water
tank inspections and maintenance. This company comes out once
a year for an inspection whereby they actually go into the tank with
a special scuba suit which has a microphone and camera installed
into the helmet. The data collected while in the tank is then
sent to a truck where it is recorded. After reviewing all the
data, if any maintenance is required, it is addressed at that time.
The Water Department has a 350 kilowatt generator should the power
fail during a storm.
This is how it works. If there is a storm and the pump
house loses power, the generator senses this and automatically
starts up. It is diesel fueled and can run around the clock,
being refueled while running if needed. The generator is on a
regular maintenance schedule.
The Village is currently sponsoring a water meter replacement
project. Installation of these new meters is done by Calumet
City Plumbing and the system is called Hexagram Star.
This system is state of the art and it is more accurate than a
dial system (which we have at present). Hexagram will allow
the Village to give better service to its residents in several ways.
One of which is that we will not have to depend on outside source to
read the meters. A simple example of how the system works is
the new meter has no outside dial and has a MTU (,meter transmission
unit/small gray box) attached to it. This MTU acts similar to
a cell phone but will never lose a call and the battery is good for
twenty years. A data collection unit (DCU) collects all the
water usage information for your home or business and is then
forwarded to the Village Hall. Hexagram also reads in gallons
versus units (which we currently have). One unit is equivalent
to 750 gallons of water.
The Water Department takes water samples weekly, monthly and
quarterly. These samples are collected at different sites
throughout the town. The samples taken weekly are checked for
bacteria and chlorine. Samples collected bi-weekly are checked
for phosphates.
Samples collected quarterly are checked for trihclomethanes and
haleoactic acids.
If a resident is doing remodeling or plumbing work and needs
their water shut off outside, the Water Department will provide this
service at no charge however a twenty-four hour notice is required
unless it is an emergency. The Water Department is on call
twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred sixty-five
days a year should you need their assistance.
As stated above, the Water Department operates and maintains the
Village’s water reservoir pump station, sewer systems, and all
fire hydrants and listed below are some additional services
provided to the residents:
