A Brief History
The original pump station and city-owned power plant was constructed on the St. Clair River in 1895. Raw, untreated water was pumped by steam driven pumps to serve a population of approximately 3,000. In 1913, the city began adding chlorine to the water in response to a typhoid fever epidemic which struck the city. In the 1920's, a committee was appointed to promote a new water treatment plant for the city. On the third city-wide vote, approval was obtained to construct a 1.5 million gallon per day plant. In 1929, the plant was constructed at a cost of $42,000. This plant served the city until 1978 when a new $3 million plant was constructed, with the capacity to pump 3 million gallons per day. In 2000, the plants average daily pumpage was 1 million gallons per day.
The St. Clair Water Filtration Plant is a Complete Treatment Plant, which includes the following steps: (1) Coagulation - the addition of aluminum sulfate; (2) Sedimentation - the settling of the coagulated material; (3) Filtration - the water filters down through sand and gravel which remove all finely divided matter held in suspension; and (4) Disinfection - the addition of chlorine and the most important part of the filtration process.
