About the Water Filtration Plant...
The Cornell Water Filtration Plant (WFP) serves a population of 25,000 including students, faculty, academic and non-academic employees, as well as residents of the hamlet of Forest Home. It draws raw water from Fall Creek which has a 125 square mile watershed originating in Cayuga County at Lake Como, and can safely provide up to 3.6 million gallons of water per day (MGD).
The WFP produces an average of up to 2.0 MGD to meet the needs of its customers. Upon reaching the plant, water is treated with sodium hypochlorite for disinfection, aluminim sulfate and a cationic polymer for sediment removal and, occasionally, soda ash to control pH. The treatment process begins with the rapid mixing of coagualants followed by flocculation and sedimentation. The water is then filtered, further disinfected, and pumped to two - one million gallon and one - 500,000 gallon water storage tanks. From these tanks, water is distributed to the campus via a network of piping that is approximately 120 miles in length.
The WFP completed a renewal project in August 2005 whereby the main pipe headers and valves were replaced and a Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition (SCADA) system was introduced. The new SCADA system has automated the filtration process allowing the plant operator to focus on optimizing and improving the operation. New electric actuators where installed along with new analyzers and instrumentation, tied to a central programmable logic controller (PLC). Industrial computers are used for the operator interfaces which allow the operators to observe the operation or make manual adjustments to the control parameters.
Staff...
Chris Bordlemay - Plant Manager