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Water Treatment Plant

About

The Town Water Department operates and maintains the Town’s water treatment and distribution system.

Water Treatment Plant

The Town Water Treatment Plant is located along the west shore of Cayuga Lake in the Town of Fayette, approximately 5 miles south of Town.

Facility Facts:

  • The Town owns and maintains two water storage tanks: Van Rensslaer Street (1.5 million gallons) and Auburn Road (250,000 gallons).
  • The water distribution system includes approximately 80 miles of water main across Town that serves residential, commercial and industrial users. 
  • The Towns of Seneca Falls and Waterloo operate under an Intermunicipal Agreement that provides emergency interconnection between the two communities. 

Making Your Water Safe to Drink

The facility pumps raw water from Cayuga Lake and is treated through flocculation and coagulation to remove organics and solids through settling and multi-media filtration. Following filtration, water is disinfected with ultraviolet light and chlorine prior to discharge to the distribution system. Treated water is pumped approximately 5 miles north to the Town’s distribution system and southward to the Town of Fayette and Varick to serve customers in these communities. The Town water department monitors for the presence of byproducts associated with Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and provides effective treatment for these constituents that are associated with the seasonal HABs.

  1. Pre-treatment: Coagulating agents are added to the incoming raw water to disinfect and remove impurities.
  2. Mixing: The water is rapidly mixed to distribute the treatment agents evenly.
  3. Coagulation and Flocculation: The water flows into large basins where chemicals react with impurities in the water (coagulation), causing them to form larger, heavy clumps called “floc” (flocculation.
  4. Sedimentation: The flocculated water flows into basins where these heavy clumps fall to the bottom.
  5. Filtration: Currently, the water flows through layers of granulated activated carbon to further remove particulates.
  6. Post-treatment: Chlorine is added to prevent bacterial growth in distribution pipes, as well as a corrosion inhibitor that helps protect the distribution pipes.