Water Treatment Plant

Water Treatment Division

The Water Treatment Division of the Public Works Department is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the City's:

• Water Treatment Plant
• 13 remote pumping stations including their radio telemetry systems
• 8 reservoir telemetry systems

Water is pumped from the Rogue River and treated at the Water Treatment Plant.

After treatment water is pumped through the distribution system into a network of reservoirs located at various elevations throughout our community.

This activity also supplies water to the North Valley Industrial Park through a pump station and reservoir dedicated for that purpose. All water produced in this activity meets or exceeds all State and Federal standards for drinking water quality.

Water Treatment Facts

• The present capacity of the treatment plant is 13,900 gallons per minute or about 20.016 million gallons per day (MGD).
• It takes anywhere from 1 to 5 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 3,560 to 13,900 gallons per minute.
• There are 3 sedimentation basins with a total area of 16,909 square feet and a total volume of 1,635,033 gallons.
• Primary chemicals used for treatment at the treatment plant include:
  • Chlorine - fed as 12.5% sodium hypochlorite (bleach) used for disinfection.
  • Aluminum-based coagulant – used to remove particulate from the water.
  • Polymer - used as a coagulant aid.
• The treatment plant has 8 mixed media filters comprising 2,478 square feet of filter area. These filters are composed of anthracite coal and sand supported on a porous membrane of compressed plastic beads.
• 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. The filter backwash system will run water through the filters at approximately 4,000 to 7,000 gallons per minute.
• The plant's clear well (finished water storage reservoir) is 433,000 gallons and is the last stop for the water before it leaves the filtration plant.
• Value of the present plant is approximately 15 - 20 million dollars.
• There were over 1.962 billion gallons of finished water pumped into the city's distribution system in 2013.

Tour

If you are interested in touring the Water Treatment Plant please fill out the Tour Request Form. (Allow 5 business days in advance of the requested tour date.)