10.10.05
Posted in System Expansion at 10:35 pm by johntheengineer
Quick details on the Saskatoon water treatment plant expansion (website here).
“The Plant currently produces on average 130 million litres a day; in the future, we will need an average of 225 million litres a day. These expansions will extend the life of the Plant for another twenty-five years; no more expansions will take place at this site, and a new plant at another location will serve to address future needs. The Water Treatment Plant expansion is estimated to take 10 years at a cost of $130 million; construction is to begin in the summer of 2004. “
The capital improvements will address the following (from a pdf available here):
Water Quality Projects:
•Disinfection System Upgrade
•New Intake and Pump House Facility (this will also help with water demand)
•Filter Plant Expansion Upgrade (this will also replace aging infrastructure)
•Plant Site Expansion (this will also replace aging infrastructure)
•High Lift Pump Station Conversion and UV Disinfection
•Chlorine Contact Chamber Replacement (this will also replace aging infrastructure)
Water Demand Projects:•Operations Facility Upgrade (this will also replace aging infrastructure)
•High Lift Pump Station and Reservoir (this will also replace aging infrastructure)
•Clarifier
•Reservoir Expansion
•Primary Watermain NE Sector
•Raw Water Line
Aging Infrastructure Replacement Project:
Environmental Regulation Project:
•Sludge Handling Facility Addition
They are a surface water source, getting their water from the Saskatchewan River.
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Posted in Financial News, System Expansion at 9:08 pm by johntheengineer
The city of Cape Coral, Florida (website here: www.capecoral.net) has put together a very professional website (located here: www.capecoralutilityexpansion.com) that describes a sizable water and wastewater expansion project they are currently undergoing.
Very impressive site, they have detailed background on the project, and up to the date information on various conditions, for example, roads:
“Cultural Park Blvd has been reduced to 2 lanes between SE 10th St and Hancock Bridge Pkwy
Nicholas Pkwy has been reduced to 2 lanes between SW 4th Ter and SW 8th St.”
…and water:
“Due to existing water and irrigation utilities in the construction area, residents will experience temporary water and irrigation interruptions.
Due to existing water and irrigation utilities in the construction area, residents will experience temporary water and irrigation interruptions.
Tuesday, October 11, 8:30am-3:00pm
Water on SE 15th Ter from SE 2nd Pl to SE 4th Pl
Water on SE 4th Pl from SE 15th Ter to SE 15th St
Water on SE 14th Ter from SE 4th Pl to SE 2nd Pl
Water on SE 2nd Pl from SE 13th St to SE 15th Ter
Water on SW 13th Ter from SW Santa Barbara Pl to SW 4th Ave
This has to be one of the best sites I have seen documenting and explaining such an expansion. It is reassurring to see a city government website look as good (and be as useful!) as the commercial sector.
Interestingly it appears that they have a dual water system, as noted on their city website (page here)
In many areas the City operates a dual water system that includes a separate source of treated, reclaimed water for irrigation. This decreases the use of water from the City’s deep well for things like watering yards, thereby conserving the drinking water for daily household and business use.
Considering that this is very germane to my research, I will be pursuing this lead! The only information missing from this website is the current and future potable water capacity and costs. I have emailed them about this, and will update pending their response. Overall, these folks deserve a round of applause for their progressive leadership.
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10.07.05
Posted in Bizzare at 6:37 pm by johntheengineer
I frequently get emailed warnings about boiling water exploding after being heated in a microwave, a relatively common and very serious phenomena. Numerous people claim that it is an urban legend. For instance, you have nescient individuals such as this, from the urbanlegends.about.com site:
“M. Thompson writes: Two problems with the view of the ’scientists’ quoted in the article.
1) Convection will occur regardless of nucleation. Heating with microwaves occurs at some depth, not on the surface, therefore there will be convection, with subsequent cooling on the surface due to the air not being even close to 212 degrees F.
Conclusion: Never happened, never will happen in anyone’s kitchen microwave oven.
- more blather snipped -
You really have to realize that just because someone has a PhD in a field such as physics, it doesn’t mean that they are capable of thinking wholistically or practically – you know the old saw: knowing more and more about less and less.
People like this are not only wrong, they are quite irritating! A simple kitchen test would dispell his crackpottery. Further I would portend that it is actually a much more common phenomena than is otherwise suggested, based on my own experience.
While working as an engineer at a water and wastewater engineering firm in Cincinnati, I noticed that the water we were getting combined with the particular plastic cups we used in our break room allowed me to create this phenomena at will. Me being the mischievous fellow that I am, I used this to great advantage as a practical joke. I would heat the water in the microwave to reach the superheated state, and then wander about until I found a target(!) and then talk about the newfangled teabags that Kroger was selling. After a bit of this I would drop in the teabag I was carrying and the water would explode, looking like a bunch of Alka-Seltzers were crumbled up and dumped in. They would always be amazed and I would walk off muttering about these newfangled items.
I am really not sure what is the underlying science behind this phenomena but believe it has something to with the availability of nucleation points. Both the air content in the water and the smoothness of the container surface influence the availability of nucleation points. I am not sure why there is variation in the air entrainment within the typical water utility distribution system although I have noticed that the air content tends to increase during cold weather months. I think that micro air bubbles allow unimpeded boiling to occur while very “pure” water prevents any bubbles from forming. It should be noted that every laboratory supply shop sells “boil stones” for the explicit purpose of providing nucleation points to avoid this phenomena.
For instance, the Sargent-Welch chemical supply store sell them on their site.
“Teflon® boiling stones (WLS-8210) promote gentle, efficient boiling and minimize bumping during reflux. Easily cleaned, noncontaminating, chemically inert and will not scratch glassware. May be used to 260°C. In 450 g bottle”
In my experience, the best containers for forming this explosive boiling condition are unused Styrofoam cups. I think that this might be due to the smoothness of the Styrofoam cup surface at the micro scale, since clearly the cups have bumps at the macro scale.
Anyway, let the truth be told here!
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10.06.05
Posted in General News, Water Reuse, System Evaluations, System Expansion at 6:30 pm by johntheengineer
From the Union Democrat Online “Mother Lode” Water may be tapped.
The “Mother Lode” here is California’s gold country, the area about 50 miles east/northeast from San Francisco. San Francisco already gets about 225 MGD from this area, in particular Tuolumne River and Hetch Hetchy.
“The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission [SFPUC] wants to eventually take an additional 25 million gallons of water each day from the Tuolumne River so that it can meet future Bay Area water needs. “
That is controversial enough, but they also want to build a fairly sizable new pipeline.
“The [SFP] utilities commission also has plans to add a controversial $500 million, 47-mile pipeline to its existing San Joaquin system, which carries water from the Sierra under the Central Valley to the East Bay.”
They (the SFPUC) claim they just want a spare pipe.
“[SFPUC spokesman Tony] Winnicker said the fourth pipeline will be used only as a back-up when another pipe needs repairs. Or if an earthquake shatters an old pipeline, Winnicker said, water could be diverted to the new pipe.”
Ummm….right. A half billion dollar, 47-mile, spare pipe. Although I actually do think that it is prudent to have spare capacity, this news report does note present their case very well. One of the local environmental groups isn’t convinced either.
“Heather Dempsey, Bay Area program director for the Tuolumne River Trust, is skeptical of Winnicker’s reasoning.
“Our analogy is if you build an extra lane on the highway it gets used,” she said. “We don’t buy the argument that they would need a $500 million pipeline just as a spare. We just see this pipeline as a major threat to the Tuolumne.” “
Interesting new development in the water wars.
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10.05.05
Posted in System Evaluations, Treatment Rules, Water Contamination, System Expansion at 1:14 pm by johntheengineer
From the SuburbanChicagoNews.com “Channahon OKs drilling sixth well”
Rather straightforward story at first, $607,560 to drill the well estimated to produce 1,000 gpm (1.44 MGD), with a total cost of about $4 million.
“Total costs for the whole project, including the well-drilling, pilot study and construction of the well house, water treatment plant and a new water tower would be approximately $4 million.
However, a deeper reading shows the story gets a little odd:
“Trustees on Monday faced a dilemma on whether to let the untreated water, which would most likely be high in the radioactive element radium, go right into the public drinking water system or to direct the new water into the village’s established treatment plant, doubling the plant’s use.”
I imagine that a local government board should sensibly raise the question of “how bad is this water,” i.e. everything is everywhere, but it would be a simple answer to compare what’s in the water to what the EPA limits are. Isn’t that what consultants are for?
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Posted in Water Contamination, Fines! at 12:05 pm by johntheengineer
A staggering fine proposed by the US EPA, Region 2. Often these huge fines are proposed to get the attention of the local leaders.
“Almost 15,000 people study, teach and work on the Mayaguez campus. Universities
should set an example for environmental compliance, since these institutions are
preparing the future professionals of our society,” EPA Regional Administrator Alan J.
Steinberg said. “The university will pay a substantial penalty for the many serious
violations we uncovered in Mayaguez, but first, we will see to it that imminent and
potential threats are eliminated safely and quickly.”
I have often wondered about the real utility of these types of fines. Many forms of pollution, especially surface and ground water contamination, are a result of poor decisions by various levels of government, e.g. city-owned wastewater treatment plants, state landfills, the Department of Energy, etc. In this case they are fining a University. Does it really do any good to penalize these cash-strapped operations? Obviously the fine(s) will make the news and hopefully spur some effort by the polluter in question, but what if the polluter calls the EPA’s “bluff?”
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Posted in Water Advisories, Biological Outbreaks, Water Contamination at 12:35 am by johntheengineer
From The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon
“Boil advisory issued after E. coli is found in water”
“About 4,000 people in 1,300 homes and businesses are affected in Spokane County Water District No. 3, north of Francis Street and west of North Division Street, Dan Sander of the state Department of Health drinking water division said Friday.”
One of the revealing comments about hunting for bacteria:
“We have no idea where the contamination came from,'’ Wick said. “All our facilities appear to be secure and nothing is compromised as far as we can tell.'’
These can be a real challenge to track down because they are so rare. Sounds like they have things under control, though.
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10.04.05
Posted in Structural/Mechanical Problems at 11:47 pm by johntheengineer
A decent water supply takes a lot of pumping. Pumps take electricity, knock out the pumps and you might have some problems pretty quick:
As reported in the Houston Chronicle
“Water service to more than half a million Houston-area residents and several key industrial facilities was in jeopardy over the weekend when Hurricane Rita knocked out power to a crucial pumping station, officials said today.”
The quote farther down in the article really puts this in perspective:
The reservoir, which holds 1.5 billion gallons of water, had a five-day supply when Entergy’s power was knocked out by Hurricane Rita Saturday.
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11.30.99
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:00 am by johntheengineer
Welcome to SafeCityWater, an information blog about the water industry.
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