How does town water work

In municipal water systems, water is withdrawn from the water source and treated before it is pumped to our homes and businesses. The quality of the source water determines the type of treatment method. Most systems will include several stages of filtration to remove suspended particles, debris and algae and disinfection to remove bacteria and viruses and purify the water. Disinfection methods include chlorination and treatment with UV ultra violet light. After treatment, municipal water systems distribute water to homes and businesses in large pipes called water mains that are usually buried under our roads and sidewalks.

Water mains are maintained by our local governments, and paid for by water rates and property taxes. Water lines are smaller pipes that transport the water from water mains to individual homes, apartments and businesses. Water lines are the responsibility of the property owner. Water in municipal systems is required to meet strict water quality standards established in provincial regulations, and is tested regularly to ensure that it is safe to drink.

Stormwater is the result of rain or melting snow. Some of this water is absorbed by the earth and percolates down into underground aquifers, and some finds its way through ditches to streams and rivers that flow into lakes and oceans. In urban areas, where the ground is covered by sealed surfaces such as roads, parking lots, or buildings, stormwater systems prevent flooding of our homes and businesses by collecting the water in storm drains and piping it to lakes, rivers and the ocean.

When the region needs water, water pumps utilize the pull of gravity to provide high water pressure. Each additional foot of height in a water tower increases water pressure by. Keeping water high off the ground plays another important role for a city infrastructure. It allows regions to use smaller water pumps.

In general, water demand for a city fluctuates throughout the day. Lots of folks are taking showers before work and school, but fewer people are running a lot of water at 3 a. Without a water tower, the municipality would have to buy a water pump big and powerful enough to keep up with peak demand in the mornings, which would then largely go to waste during less busy parts of the day for water usage plus incur extra costs.

In hilly regions, a tower can sometimes be replaced by a simple tank located on the highest hill in the area. A water tower's tank is normally quite large. A normal in-ground swimming pool in someone's backyard might hold something like 20, or 30, gallons that's a lot of water! Typically, a water tower's tank is sized to hold about a day's worth of water for the community served by the tower. If the pumps fail for example, during a power failure , the water tower holds enough water to keep things flowing for about a day.

One of the big advantages of a water tower is that it lets a municipality size its pumps for average rather than peak demand. That can save a community a lot of money. Say that the water consumption for a pumping station averages gallons of water per minute or , gallons over the course of a day.

There will be times during the day when water consumption is much greater than gallons per minute. For example, in the morning, lots of people wake up at about the same time say a. They go to the bathroom, take a shower, brush their teeth, etc. Water demand might peak at 2, gallons per minute at 7 a.

Because of the water tower, the municipality can purchase a gallon-per-minute pump and let the water tower handle the peak demand. At night, when demand normally falls to practically zero, the pump can make up the difference and refill the water tower. In most towns, the water people drink comes from either a well, a river or a reservoir normally a local lake.

The output from the water treatment plant is clear, germ-free water. A high-lift pump pressurizes the water and sends it to the water system's primary feeder pipes. The water tower is attached to the primary feeders quite simply, as shown in this diagram:. If the pump is producing more water than the water system needs, the excess flows automatically into the tank.

If the community is demanding more water than the pump can supply, then water flows out of the tank to meet the need. Water towers come in all shapes and sizes. Take, for example, this giant peach along I in Gaffney, South Carolina. In a city, tall buildings often need to solve their own water pressure problems. Because the buildings are so tall, they often exceed the height that the city's water pressure can handle.

So a tall building will have its own pumps and its own water towers. In the following picture, taken from the Empire State Building in New York City, there are at least 30 small water towers visible on the tops of these buildings.

Another interesting fact about water towers -- they can affect your insurance rates! During a fire, the water demand increases significantly and may greatly exceed the capacity of the pumps at the water plant. A water tower guarantees that there will be enough pressure to keep water flowing through the fire hydrants.