| Water
Treatment
The City of
Florence Water Department supplies drinking water to the City
of Florence and the town of Killen. Most of the water supplied
to Florence and Lauderdale County comes from two surface water
treatment plants located on Wilson Lake and Cypress Creek. In
addition, the Water Department operates two ground water wells
in the Killen area.
At the
treatment plants, the water is treated for consumption by six
processes:
-
Rapid
Mixing
– The
untreated water is pumped to a rapid mix chamber and
aluminum sulfate (alum) and chlorine added.
-
Flocculation – This slow mixing process allows the
alum treated solids to stick together forming a heavier
layer of particle known as “floc”.
-
Sedimentation – The “floc” is separated from the
water in this process. This physical settling process
allows the floc to settle to the bottom of the tank and
the clear water on top is then removed.
-
Filtration – The clear water left is filtered to
remove any remnant particles. To remove these particles,
the water passes through filters that consist of varying
sizes of sand and anthracite coal.
-
Fluoridation and Disinfection – Fluoride is added to
protect children’s teeth from decay and chlorine is
added for disinfection.
-
PH
Control
– pH
control is the final step in the treatment process.
Here, lime is added for the purpose of increasing the pH
of the water. By doing this, the water becomes alkaline
instead of acidic which makes it non-corrosive and
allows a thin protective coating of calcium to form on
the pipe that serves as a barrier between the pipe and
the water.
Well water
goes through very little treatment because the soil naturally
filters solids and bacteria from the water as it passes into
the well. The wells in the Killen area require only two
treatment processes. One is disinfection using chlorine and
the other is pH control by adding sodium hydroxide.
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