GEORGE NEWS - George Municipality is upgrading its water treatment facilities with new filter media (sand) which was purchased under the BFI (Budget Facility Infrastructure) project for the Old Water Treatment Works (OWTW) and new Water Treatment Works (NWTW), both in Denneoord, and Wilderness Water Treatment Works, and is currently stocked on site.
Director of Civil Engineering Jannie Koegelenberg said some sand replacement has already been done in five of the 13 filters in the OWTW and in all three filters at the Wilderness WTW. The remaining eight OWTW filters and 16 NWTW filters will receive new sand during the next 18 months.
Special filter
George Municipality implemented the use of specialised filter media* called DMI65 at the three treatment plants more than a decade ago to stabilise the final water quality and improve the ability to deal with fluctuating raw water quality. DMI65 is a catalytic water filtration media and is specifically designed for the removal of iron and manganese in water solutions without needing chemicals. The advantage of the media is that it does not need frequent regeneration and it only needs chlorine to keep it free from bacterial growth.
This media is a manufactured "greensand" and has proven quality, reliability and a life cycle of 10 years.
Water quality
The raw surface water from rivers around George contains high concentrations of dissolved iron and manganese, which are challenging to remove from the water. In addition, the water has high colour from humic and fulvic acids, originating from vegetation in the river catchments.
All of these will contribute to unsatisfactory water quality with respect to colour for consumers and will stain laundry when not removed in sufficient quantities.
While conventional treatment processes will produce satisfactory water quality most of the time, the final water quality varies due to varying raw water quality because of environmental factors such as rainfall and temperature, as well as other external factors.
Filter media is material that actively separates solids from a solution and/or binds select materials in a solution.
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