Water Treatment The water treatment plant for a mixed…

Water Treatment The water treatment plant for a mixed…

Water Treatment The water treatment plant for a mixed industrial-commercial-residential

city of 100,000 people is supplied by a river intake.  The actual plant configuration consists of three parallel sets of one coagulation/flocculator tank, one sedimentation tank followed by four rapid filter boxes (See Figure 1). Normally, the turbidity of the water is 50 Turbidity Units (TU). Three or four times a year heavy rains cause the turbidity to increase to 500 TU. In addition, the sewage treatment plant of a nearby upstream town in known to release partially treated sewage at these times because of the high rate of stormwater runoff flowing through the combined stormwater and sewage lines feeding the plant. In its present configuration the plant cannot provide the required quality of drinking water during these periods and the citizens have begun to complain.
Discuss the strategies open to you as the waterworks engineer for the town (at least two possible solutions). Provide conceptual solutions, no design involved.