Are The E. John Bliss Fredericton Water Treatment Plant
Chlorine levels are constantly monitored.
Pipes are painted different colours to indicate what type of water they carry. The royal blue pipes carry treated drinking water.
Turbidity is also monitored. In drinking water, the higher the turbidity level, the higher the risk that people may get sick. Contaminants like viruses or bacteria can become attached to the suspended solid and interfere with water disinfection with chlorine because the particles act as shields for the virus and bacteria. Turbidity can be measured by passing light through the water and is measured this way uses an instrument called a nephelometer. More light reaches the detector if there are lots of small particles scattering the source beam than if there are few. The units of turbidity from a calibrated nephelometer are called Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU). To some extent, how much light reflects for a given amount of particulates is dependent upon properties of the particles like their shape, color, and reflectivity. For this reason (and the reason that heavier particles settle quickly and do not contribute to a turbidity reading), a correlation between turbidity and total suspended solids (TSS) is somewhat unique for each location or situation.
These are filtration and reaction tanks that remove small particles and other contaminants from the water.
An engineering firm in Fredericton designed the new water treatment plant. These blueprints are framed and on the wall of the new facility.
The chlorine room is closely guarded and monitored.
The laboratory is used to conduct other tests on the groundwater, and the treated drinking water.
A modern water treatment plant is fully automated, and alarms sound when certain measured parameters are exceeded.
Sand filtration/reaction tanks
Records are kept and water usage is closely tracked and monitored. In the summer of 2009, Frederictonians didn’t use much water (perhaps the wet July was a factor).
What can you do to conserve water?