Have you ever wondered how water is made safe to drink? Yesterday afternoon, I had the opportunity to take a tour of the Forsyth County Water Treatment Plant. My tour guide Mr. John Marshall, who is the water plant manager for the county, walked me through the process of how clean drinking water is created and went in depth into the different types of machinery used throughout the facility. First stop was the clarifiers. After water from Lake Lanier gets transported to the storage tanks, it flows through a series of pipes that leads it to the clarifiers. Clarifiers are settling tanks that are used to remove solids that are deposited by sedimentation. If you look closely on both of the pictures above, you can see tiny holes at the bottom of the clarifiers. These holes help remove the sediment buildup. After the clarification progress, water travels through a series of pipes to the coagulation area. When water is coagulated, chemicals with a positive charge are added to it. The positive charge neutralizes the negative charge of the dirt in the water, and then the particles bind with the chemicals to form larger particles which are known as floc. For the Forsyth County Water Plant, oxidized potassium permanganate is added to the water. This water then settles in various sediment pools, which are about the same size and depth as a standard swimming pool. This gives the water a chance to settle. Once the floc has had a chance to settle to the bottom of the water supply, the clear water on top passes through sediment tables, which removes the remaining floc. As shown in the left hand picture above, flock settles on planks that are at an angle. This keeps the buildup of sediment towards the bottom of the water supply. Next, the filtration process begins. While the majority of sediment and dirt has been removed from the water, it isn't yet safe to drink. Water travels from the sediment tables to pipes that go to the membrane filters. Hollow fiber membranes push water through their tiny, 0.1 micron diameter holes, trapping particles and harmful bacteria. On the other side of the membranes, clean water is released, and goes into holding tanks. Finally, disinfectants, such as chlorine and chloramine, are added to the water in order to kill any harmful particles that remain. On top of disinfectants, fluoride is added to the drinking water.
Having the opportunity to tour this facility was quite an eye-opener. I learned more about the water we drink in the two hour tour than I've ever learned prior. Creating safe drinking water is a time consuming, tedious process that must be monitored around the clock. There are people at the facility twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, making sure that everything is up-to-shape and that our water supply is completely safe. So, the next time you fill up your water bottle, take a moment to think about the journey the water took to reach its destination.
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April 2018
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