Water Treatment

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Overview

The Fishermen Point Treatment Plant was completed in 1989 and serves the City’s population of nearly 10,000. The plant feeds the water through a distribution system with approximately 3800 connections. The plants maximum output is approximately 6.7 million gallons per day (MGD).

The source of raw (untreated) water feeding the plant comes from Shasta Lake through two intake ports located in Shasta Dam. These ports are at different depths on the dam to allow for selection of the cleanest (lowest turbidity) water. Five large pumps are used to push the water up hill to the plant site through a 16" line. The pumps can be selected in any order to deliver the required flow rate of the filters.

View latest Water Quality Report (PDF)

The plant site contains the following equipment:

  • 150,000 gallon raw water storage tank.
  • 220,000 gallon treated or finished water storage tank.
  • 330,000 gallon treated or finished water storage tank.
  • Three Micro-Floc Trident filter units.
  • One underground 50,000 gallon clear well.
  • One backwash basin.
  • Onsite Chlorine Generator
  • Sludge Processing Centrifuge
  • Chlorine analyzers, turbidity meters, particle counters

When demand for water lowers the level in the finished water storage tank to a preset point, it automatically causes the filters to come on line. The filters operate at flow levels set by the operator to keep up with demand.

Once the filters start, raw water is fed to the filters from the raw storage tank. As the water travels to the filters it is injected with chlorine for disinfecting and Polymer to aid in the filtering process. Chlorine is manufactured at the plant through an onsite Chlorine generation system. This equipment takes a salt water brine solution and pumps it into five electrically charged rectifiers which produce a 0.8% sodium hypochlorite solution which is used for disinfection. As the water passes through the filters, impurities are removed from the water and trapped in the filter media. The clean water then flows to the clear well where it is pumped to the finished water tank to feed the demand. As the level in the raw water tank drops, it causes the pumps at the base of the dam to come on and feed the plant with more water from the lake.

Once the water reaches the plant, the line splits to feed the raw water storage tank and the filters. If the filters are not running, the water will feed the raw tank until the tank reaches the full level. Then the pumps are shut down automatically. This will happen only after the filters have produced enough water to meet demand and fill the finished water tank to the full mark. Then the filters will shut down until demand lowers the finished storage tank and causes the filters to start again repeating the whole process.

Over a period of time the filters become loaded with removed particles and need to be cleaned. Water is pushed back up through the filters allowing the cleaning of the filter media. The backwash water leaves the filters through a channel at the top of the filters and is drained to the backwash basin. This process is done automatically or by operator control.  Dirty backwash water is pumped into a centrifuge dewatering unit to separate dry solids “dirt” from water. The water is recycled back into the system and the dirt is transported to the landfill. This process is all done by the treatment plant operators.