Water Treatment Facility
Every time you flush a toilet or wash your dishes water goes down the drain and into a treatment plant. Once there it begins its long journey to a clean water supply.
The first step at most treatment plants is a pre-disinfection. Chemical disinfectants eliminate pathogens and organisms to help keep the water clean throughout the process.
Pre-Sedimentation Building
The Pre-Sedimentation Building is where the treatment process really begins. After leaving the settling pond and the piping that connects to it, water travels into this building where the first of 5 major unit water treatment processes starts. Here chemical coagulation and flocculation take place as well as sedimentation and filtration.
The goal of this first step is to remove solids from wastewater. If the particles are heavier than the water they will sink to the bottom of the tank or basin (sedimentation). If these solids are not removed, they can contaminate the water supply. Particles with a lower density than the water they are in will float and require different removal techniques like dissolved air flotation.
Sedimentation occurs in rectangular or circular sedimentation tanks that are sized to allow the water to flow slowly through them with a minimum of turbulence. The velocity of the water must be less than the downward speed of the sinking solids. Chemicals can be added to improve separation, and a sludge scraper may also be used to facilitate removal of the settled solids.
These solids are kept for 20 to 30 days in large, heated and closed tanks called ‘digesters’ where bacteria break down the organic material. This reduces its volume, water treatment facility odor and gets rid of organisms that can cause disease. The digested material is then disposed of in landfills or can be used as fertilizer.
Sedimentation Tanks
A water treatment facility requires sedimentation tanks that collect water as it settles. The tanks must have sufficient volume to allow for a minimum hydraulic retention time of 90 minutes during peak instantaneous flow conditions.
Primary sedimentation is a physical process that relies on gravitational forces to remove suspended materials from wastewater. Heavy solids and grit that are heavier than water settle out of the sewage along with scum that floats to the surface. This is a critical step since high turbidity levels can interfere with the performance of filtration systems and may lead to disease causing microorganisms such as Cryptosporidium.
Sedimentation tank design varies depending on the water treatment plant’s needs. The simplest method of settling water is by using rectangular, flow through, sedimentation tanks. The tanks are built with a sloping floor that allows the settling water to be drawn from the inlet end of the tank while allowing a large proportion of the sludge to reach the outlet end where it can be collected and transported to a sludge hopper.
Some settling tanks are designed with inclined plate and tube settlers that help to speed the settling process by increasing the settling surface area within the tank. Other designs use circular, radial flow tanks that are built with inclined or cone-shaped bottoms that assist in sludge evacuation. These tanks can also incorporate a center feed-well to reduce mixing energy and help ensure uniform influent distribution.
Filtration Facility
The water that settles in the sedimentation tanks then enters a filtration facility where it is filtered through beds of coal, sand, and other granular substances to remove any organic matter that wasn’t removed during the sedimentation process. In our plant, this is done by passing the water through rapid rate multi-media gravity filter beds that have a layer of anthracite, then filter sand and finally garnet sand.
Water is treated further by adding chemicals such as chlorine to disinfect it, and fluoride to protect teeth. This is required by federal, state and local health regulations. In addition, the water is also aerated to keep oxygen in it as it is being treated.
This is a critical step in the treatment of water to ensure that it doesn’t return harmful materials into environmental sources such as rivers, lakes, and oceans. Water water treatment facility supplier treatment is a very complex process that must be carefully controlled to ensure the quality of the water is high and safe for people to drink.
The treated water then goes into two 2.5 million gallon storage tanks before entering the distribution system. The Bull Run Filtration Project is a state-of-the-art facility that was built with a low interest loan from the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA). Construction began in November 2014, and the project went live in August 2017. It took just over two years to complete the project, and we have been operating without any problems since then.
Disinfection Facility
Water treatment plants use basic physics and high technology to purify water so it can be delivered to people’s homes, and wastewater can safely go back into the environment.
When raw water arrives, it’s a little bit like sewage: it’s contaminated with salts and oils, organic matter, calcium, silica, magnesium, sulfate, fertilizers, insecticides and pathogens (like bacteria or intestinal parasites). Water treatment facilities remove these contaminants to make the water safe for drinking.
The incoming raw water is first settled to get rid of floating materials. Then it’s mixed up chemically using coagulation, flocculation, and clarifying. This process causes the small particles of dissolved matter to stick together and form larger, heavier, more solid matter that can be easily separated from the water.
In the next tank, the raw water is pumped into a clarifier. This helps the organic material that settles to the bottom of the tank, called sludge, to thicken so it can be removed. The water is then pumped into a second tank that has dual media depth filters for further clarification.
Before the water goes into your home, it’s disinfected by chlorine. This kills the germs in the water that cause diseases, such as typhoid, cholera and gastroenteritis. Water treatment facilities also adjust the water pH and add fluoride to improve taste, reduce corrosion of pipes, and help keep teeth strong and healthy.