This is where it all begins..The River. This is a photo near the intake to the City Pumping Station. This is where our raw water begins its arduous 6.2 mile journey from the river, through Chemical Treatment & Filtration, to the faucet (located in my apartment)....the main intakes are screened to remove large fish, and other objects (tires, leaves, branches, etc) which would damage the pumps....
There are 3 pumps used to pump river water the 5.3 miles up to the plant. Each pump is capable of pumping 30 MILLION gallons per day! There are also two 20MGD pumps for backup. Normally, on average, the pumping station pumps about 60 MILLION gallons per day.....at an electrical cost of $xx(being est.)/day. At that rate, treated water from the City WTP would fill the Spectrum in 10 days! During the summer months, my plant is capable of filtering 80 MGD or more! At that rate, water from our WTP would fill the Spectrum in 7.5 days!
My plant's filtering capacity is the limiting factor. Each of our 26 sand/dual media filters is capable of 5.0 MGD. this gives us a theoretical maximum of 130 MGD.
The Quality of our finished water depends on the Quality of the water source! The River carries water that has been used by communities & industries upstream, as well as storm runoff, etc. This means we get upstream wastewater (from treatment plants like our own) plus storm drainage.
Alongside our rivers there are farms, parking lots, parks, yards, etc. When it rains on these places fertilizers, pesticides, oil, grease (and other hydrocarbons) and many other pollutants runoff into the river. Algae, and other organic life including bacteria find the perfect breeding ground in the river. Especially during the summer! There are also illegal (and legal) discharges of byproducts from chemical production upstream...
Although both our rivers have made significant improvement over the last 20 years or so, our water STILL requires a great deal of treatment before it is safe to drink!
to move to the Primary Sedimentation Basin our next step in water treatment
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