WARRENDALE, PA, June 9, 2008 -- The City of Galesburg, Illinois has selected Siemens Water Technologies to provide equipment for a new $17.5M water treatment plant to be located near Oquawka, Illinois. Currently, the city obtains its groundwater from an aquifer near Oquawka, which is located along the Mississippi River. The water is chlorinated and then pumped approximately 56 km (30 miles) to an existing treatment facility in Galesburg. Over time, the high level of chlorine has corroded the pipeline, and sections of it must be replaced. The new plant near Oquawka will allow the water to be treated closer to the source before sending it to Galesburg, thus reducing the amount of chlorine required. The 45-MLD (12-MGD) plant is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2010.
The Siemens equipment will consist of two aluminum induced-draft aerators and two CenTROL cluster filters. This equipment will increase the treatment plant's capacity from 32 MLD (8.5 MGD) to 45 MLD (12 MGD), allowing the plant to supply treated water to towns and users along the way, and will also improve the water quality and taste. The plant is designed for future expansion, should the need arise.
The water treatment process is as follows: raw water is aerated for iron oxidation and chemically treated with chlorine for manganese oxidation prior to filtration. The water is then treated with the CenTROL granular media filters to remove particulate iron and manganese. The water is disinfected with chlorine before being sent to distribution.
The induced-draft aerator oxidizes iron and also strips dissolved gases from the water. This is accomplished when the water cascades over the slat trays while air is pulled up through the trays. The air continuously sweeps through the aerator, oxidizing the ferrous iron and carrying away released gases that may be present.
The CenTROL filter incorporates four granular media filter cells positioned around a central distributor column. Circular weirs evenly divide the water to each operating cell for filtration. The water then flows down through the filter media, through the underdrain, out into an effluent chamber, and over the effluent weirs. The CenTROL incorporates the MULTIWASH filtration system, which uses a combined air and water backwash process to maintain filter media cleanliness.
Once the new plant is commissioned, the existing plant in Galesburg will be taken out of service. Galesburg's future plans include constructing a parallel pipeline from Oquawka for redundancy.
The Siemens Industry Solutions division comprises the business activities of Siemens VAI Metal Technologies (Linz, Austria), Siemens Water Technologies (Warrendale, PA), and Industry Technologies (Erlangen, Germany).
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