Public Works - Water/Wastewater Plants
The City staff for the plants includes five dual certified operators. They are certified in both water and wastewater and rotate between the two plants. The city also has a laboratory technician that is capable of running samples for both water and wastewater.
The City’s water plant consists of five wells and three high service pumps. The plant is capable of supplying over 4 million gallons of water per day. The water is aerated, disinfected and also injected with an antiscalant that helps prevent corrosion in the pipes of the distribution system. The water storage capacity is 800000 gallons. Also, there is a Reverse Osmosis system that treats about 10 percent of the well water that is blended with the water pumped from the wells to help improve water quality.
The City’s wastewater plant is a Carrousel oxidation ditch activated sludge process with 1.2 million gallons per day capacity. It consists of: an on-site influent pump station, headworks, two Carrousel oxidation ditch aeration basins of 290000 gallons each providing a total volume of 580000 gallons, two clarifiers, one of 101000gallons and one of 186000 gallons providing a total volume of 287000 gallons with 3349 square feet of surface area, two chlorine contact chambers of 29000 gallons each for a total of 58000 gallons, and an effluent transfer pump station with two pumps each rated for 2500 gallons per minute. Residuals are stabilized with one aerobic sludge digester of 325000 gallons. The residuals are land applied at the City owned residuals site after stabilization.
There are two effluent storage tanks of 1.0 million gallons total volume and a reclaimed water pump station with two pumps each rated for 2100 gallons per minute after the storage tanks with 10.6 miles of reclaimed water transmission pipeline.
The City’s water and wastewater plants have onsite power generation that allows them to continue operating even in the event of a power outage. There is also a SCADA system that allows the operators to monitor and control plant equipment through text messaging without having to be on-site.