The process for treating the water involves seven steps.1. After being processed through the waste water treatment plant, the treated reuse water is disinfected and pumped from the River Road Treatment Facility to the Cypress Water Treatment Plant
2. Treat the reuse water through the Microfiltration Units
During the treatment process the reuse water will be treated with the latest technology being used to clean water, the Microfiltration Reverse Osmosis Plant (MFRO). The first step is Microfiltration. The reuse water will flow into a clarifier, similar to a conventional plant, where it is subjected to a coagulant. The reuse water will then enter the micro-filtration cell where a pump pulls the water through a fiber filled module. The pores in the fiber are so small that most of the impurities are too large to pass through, removing them before the next step in the purification process.
3. Treat the water through Reverse Osmosis
Following Microfiltration, the reuse water will be treated through Reverse Osmosis. This is the same technology that large ships use to treat sea water for human consumption, that is used on the space station and that is used in the process to manufacture silicon chips. The process forces the water through a 0.0001 micron (One micron is one-thousandth of a millimeter) semi-permeable membrane by way of water pressure but only allows water molecules to pass through the membrane. Salts and other contaminants cannot pass through the membrane and are flushed away.
4. Release the MFRO treated reuse water into a holding lagoon
5. Blend the reuse water with raw lake water on a 50-50 basis
6. Treat the blended water through conventional means
Regular raw water from the City’s water source lakes, Lake Arrowhead and Lake Kickapoo, is treated once through an extensive series of steps that produce safe, clean drinking water. This is the third step of treatment for the reuse
water and entails:
A. Treatment with Chlorine Dioxide
B. Pre-disinfection
C. Coagulation
D. Softening
E. Flocculation
F. Sedimentation
G. Re-stabilization
H. Fluoridation
7. Store and pump to distribution