University Daily Kansan / Monday, December 3, 1990
9
Cool, clear
Keith Whealy, plant supervisor for the Lawrence Water Department, examines a sample of water.
Water
Lawn sprinklers chattering on a summer day, a warm shower to beat the morning chill, a façade that runs for drinking or for cooking.
Most people take it for granted that water flows when the tap is turned on, but the 23 licensed operators of the Lawrence Water Department don't. They control the quality and reliability of the city's water supply.
Lawrence residents and businesses consume an average of 9 million gallons of water each day, said Ralph Gelvin Jr. water systems engineer for the water department. During peak periods, such as the heat wave of summer 1988, the city may use up to 22 million gallons on a single day. To the water department, this is in all a day's work.
Water for the city comes from three sources: the Kansas River, Clinton Lake and a series of wells along the river near Burcham Park. Water from the river and wells is processed at the plant treatment at Wakarua Station. The water in town is treated at a plant at Wakarua Drive and Clinton Parkway.
Converting the river's murk into potable water employs methods that have been around since the 1940s.
"It's a very simple process, a very difficult process," Gelvin said. "We're not using any chemical treatment process but I haven't been around for 50 years."
"Water treatment isn't high tech. It's very conservative. It's proved over 50 years that it's worked so it's hard to change."
The plant at Third and Indiana streets serves the older parts of Lawrence, including the University of Kansas. Its purification sequence starts in a 1.5-million-gallon setting basin. The majority of the river's
sand and silt settles to the bottom, and the cleanest water is skimmed from the top. The remaining silt-laden water is returned to the river
From the first basin, water moves to one of four chemical bases where potassium permanganate is added to remove iron and manganese, and activated carbon is added to control taste and odor.
"As you can imagine, using the river as a source, we sometimes have to use an awful lot of activated carbon to knock out the taste." Gelvin said. "Once in awhile, it does get through. We try to knock it out here, but if we don't, the customers get it, and they do call us about it."
Water flows from the chemical basins to another series of four setting basins. On the way, carbon dioxide is added for preliminary control of acidity.
In the first of the basins, lime is added to remove hardness and for additional acidity control. Alum is mixed in as a coagulant, causing fine particles of silt to clump together for easier settling.
Again, the cleanest water is decanted from the top of each basin on the way to the next. Controlled amounts of chlorine are added to each pool as a disinfectant. It takes about eight hours for water to move from the first settling basin to the last.
In the final step, water is pumped to a set of eight filter beds. Six to seven feet of sand lies in the bottom of each bed. The filters remove virtually all remaining salt.
Turbidity the amount of suspended material is monitored constant.
"The state allows us up to 1.0 parts per million on turbidity," said Charlie Ballenger, lead shift operator. "But we like to keep it below 0.5 parts per million. We usually do much better."
Story and photos by Keith Thorpe
To assure water purity, samples are taken from each step of the process every two hours for analysis. Samples are made to counter changes in the river.
"With state and federal laws as they are, the penalty for having a plant upset is very drastic." Gelvin said. "We don't allow it to happen. We do everything we can to keep it from happening.
"Unlike any other industry or any other commercial business, once the water is treated and it leaves this water can't recall it." It out there. We have to be assured before it goes out that it meets all the requirements."
Jim Shreve, class 3 operator, takes a sample from a settling basin.
Chemically treated water flows through a series of four settling basins in an eight-hour process that removes the majority of river silt
Charlie Ballenger. lead shift operator. examines a water sample
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River water undergoes settling while the top portion is decanted.
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