Facility Description, Surface Water Treatment, and WTR Processing The City of York: Surface Drinking Water Treatment

Plant The City of York Drinking Water Treatment Plant has a design capacity of 20 mgd and serves approximately 60,000 residential and industrial customers. The plant treats raw water from the east branch of the Codorus Creek to meet drinking water standards; the water treatment process (1) reduces suspended solids to <0.3 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) and (2) adds residual disinfectant to the treated water prior to distribution.

Raw Water Treatment and Processing Raw water from the Codorus Creek flows through a bar screen to prevent large debris from entering/obstructing the raw water pumps. When the water enters the raw water pumping station, potassium permanganate (KMnO4) is added to oxidize and precipitate dissolved ions such as Fe2+ and Mg2+ and to control the growth of microorganisms throughout the water treatment process. Powder activated carbon (PAC) is also added as needed to absorb organics (compounds that cause water discoloration, taste, and odors). After treatment with KMnO4 and PAC, the water is pumped from the raw water pumping station to the treatment plant headworks and is treated with alum (Al2(SO4)3), a coagulant that binds with small particles to improve precipitation out of solution (Figure 1). To maximize contact between the coagulant and the particles in the water, the water is pumped into the rapid mixing chamber where it is mixed for 30 to 60 seconds. Following the rapid mixing chamber, the water is pumped into the flocculation basin where it is mixed slowly for 20 to 30 minutes to promote particle contact and flocculation. After leaving the flocculation basin, the water is pumped into the inclined plane sedimentation basin where it flows across

inclined plane settlers spaced 2 inches apart (Figure 1). The surface overflow rate is carefully controlled to allow particles to settle prior to reaching the outlet pipe. The inclined planes promote particle settlement by minimizing the horizontal distance the particles travel before hitting a inclined surface and dropping out of solution. The water treatment residuals (WTR) that drop out of solution form a sludge blanket (~2-3% solids) along the bottom of the sedimentation basin. The settled water (NTU<1) leaves the sedimentation basin and then flows through a layered multi-media filter to remove the remaining particles. Because the maximum loading rate of each multi-media filter is 4.0 gallons per minute (gpm) per square foot, the York Surface Water Treatment Plant requires 9 active and 2 reserve multi-media filters to meet the 20 mgd demand. The water first flows through a 16 coarsely-textured, low density (s.g. 1.4) anthracite layer, then flows through 12 medium-textured, medium density (s.g. 2.6) sand layer, and finally flows through an 8 finely textured and highest density (s.g. 3.8) garnet sand layer before entering the under-drain to flow out of the filter. The layering (which increases in fineness and density) serves (1) to pull large particles out of solution first without clogging finer pores and (2) to maintain media layering after backwash flushing. After leaving the multi-media filter, the water is treated with Cl2, a residual disinfectant that remains in the water to kill the microorganisms once the water enters distribution. Prior to leaving the water treatment plant, the water enters a baffled clearwell; the baffles slow the water down to increase Cl2 contact time (at least 6mg-min/L) (Figure 1). Once in distribution, the Cl2 concentration must maintain a minimum level of 0.2 mg/L to ensure proper disinfection, but must not exceed 4.0 mg/L due to increased formation potential of disinfection byproducts (DBPs)carcinogenic halogens formed between Cl2 and organic compounds. After the treated

water leaves the clearwell, Zn orthophosphate is added to control pipe corrosion and lime is added to neutralize acidity. The treated water then leaves the treatment plant and is sent to distribution.

Water Treatment Residuals Processing In addition to managing the drinking water, the accumulated WTR in the inclined plane settling basin and the trapped particles in the multi-media filters must be managed and removed from the system. The water treatment residuals are pumped from the bottom of the inclined plane settler, treated with a conditioning polymer, and pumped into the WTR thickening chamber (Figure 1). To flush the accumulated water treatment residuals from the multi-media filter, backwash water is pumped (15 gpm/ft2) from the filter backwash holding tank (capacity: 480,000 gallons) through the bottom of the filter to fluidize the bed and force the trapped particles to the surface. The backwash water flows from the multi-media filters, is treated with a conditioning polymer to enhance sedimentation, and flows into the WTR thickening basin (Figure 1). After additional settling in the WTR thickening basin, the settled residual solution (~5% solids) is pumped from the WTR thickening basin and treated with a dewatering polymer and sent to the belt filter press; the reject water is decanted back to headworks and retreated (Figure 1). The residuals that enter belt filter press are dewatered between two high pressure rollers; in this final residual removal step, the reject water is decanted to headworks to be retreated and the final WTR cake solid product (~20-25% solids) is removed from the system.

Codorus Creek
Lake Williams Lake Redman

Key
water flow water treatment residuals (WTR) flow added chemical(s) raw water pump station

Al2(SO4) (alum)

Headworks
Rapid Mixer

Flocculators

Bar Screen
KMnO4 Powder Activated Carbon

Baffled Clearwell

Inclined Plate Settling Basin WTR

Backwash Water Storage Tank

Multi-media Filter

To Distribution

Cl2

Conditioning Polymer
Zinc Orthophosphate Decant to Headworks Lime Return Water WTR Thickening Basin

Cake Solids (20-25% Solids)

Belt Filter Press WTR Dewatering Polymer

WTR

Figure 1. City of York Water Company Treatment Plant; Simplified Water Treatment Schematic