Click here to view the Water Treatment Plant Facility Plan

1. The present capacity of the treatment plant is 13,900 gallons per minute or about 20.016 Million Gallons per Day (MGD).
2. It takes approximately 3 hours for a water molecule to move through all phases of the treatment process and make it into the distribution system, but this time varies depending upon the current flow rate at the treatment plant which ranges from 3,500 to 13,900 GPM.
3. There are three sedimentation basins with a total area of 16,909 square feet and a total volume of 1,635,033 gallons.
4. Primary Chemicals used for treatment at the filtration plant include:
   1. Chlorine – fed as 12.5% Sodium Hypochlorite (Bleach) used for disinfection.
   2. Liquid Alum – this is our primary coagulant and is used to remove particulate from the water.
   3. Polymer – used as a coagulant aid.
   4. Lime – Used to balance the pH of the water. This helps to control corrosion in the distribution system.
5. The plant has 8 mixed media filters comprising 2478 sq/feet of filter area. These filters are composed of Anthracite Coal and Sand supported on a porous membrane of compressed plastic beads.
6. The filter backwash system will run water through the filters at approximately 4,000 to 7,000 gallons per minute. Backwashing is the process used to clean the filters by forcing clean water through the filter in a direction opposite to normal flow which causes trapped dirt to be removed from the filter media.
7. The plants clear well is 433,000 gallons and is the last stop for the water before it leaves the filtration plant.
8. Value of the present plant is approximately 15 – 20 million dollars.
9. There were over 2.2 billion gallons of finished water pumped into the City’s distribution system in 2007.