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Galway Water Treatment Plant
Most Water supplies need to be treated to bring them up to the required EU standards.
The treatment of the Galway Water Supply is done at the Treatment Plant which was built in 1981.
At present raw water is abstracted from the river Corrib and undergoes the following type of treatment:
Screening
The screen (bars of metal spaced closely together) acts like a large sieve and catches any floating debris like leaves and twigs.
Coagulation
The water is passed through large tanks where aluminium sulphate or iron sulphate (chemicals known as coagulants) are added. These coagulants cause impurities such as colour, suspended solids, bacteria and metals to come together by electrostatic charges (process known as coagulation) where they can be separated from the water.
Settlement
The water is allowed to flow into large Settlement Tanks, which allows the fine particles to settle.
Filtration
The clear water is passed through filters consisting of a bed of fine sand supported on layers of coarse sand and gravel.
The fine sand removes traces of residual coagulant and suspended matter.
The sand is washed frequently, by reversing the direction of flow, to remove unwanted particles.
Chlorination and Fluoridation also takes place at various stages of the process at the treatment plant.
Full time monitoring of the water supply takes place in a laboratory on site.
Water is then distributed to the city and environs by a network of 360km of water main.