Water Facilities:

Microfiltration Water Treatment Plant

Our community is growing, as is our need for more clean water. At the same time, we want to assure that our residents are safe from water-borne pathogens, such as cryptosporidium and giardia, that have concerned other communities.

That's why Manitowoc Public Utilities planned and constructed our city's new Water Treatment Plant and Microfiltration Addition, utilizing state-of-the-art microfiltration technology. The new facility uses an innovative hollow fiber technology called CMF Memcor Microfiltration. The system provides continuous microfiltration, creating a barrier to micro-organisms.

The new Water Treatment Plant is located in a building addition to the former water treatment facility, just east of the MPU business office. The new facility features a unique modular design which allows microfiltration arrays to be added in 1 million gallons per day increments, as our community's needs grow.

WATER TREATMENT PROCESS

  1. Lake water enters the raw water pump house through an intake two miles off the Lake Michigan shore. In the raw water pump house, a traveling screen removes large solids such as driftwood and vegetation. The water is then pumped into the plant through a 500 micron (0.02 inch) screen to remove smaller particles such as sand and silt.
  2. Next, the water passes through the microfiltration array. The array is filled with hundreds of thousands of tiny hollow filters (think of them as tiny, flexible, porous, plastic straws) that remove bacteria-size particles. These particles are as small as 0.2 micron (about 1/100 the diameter of a human hair), particles much smaller than we can see, but that can be potentially problematic for our water supply and our community.
  3. Water that passes through the microfiltration process is tested in Manitowoc Public Utilities new Water Treatment Plant Quality Control Center, assuring that water is safe for our consumption.
  4. Water flows from the Water Treatment Plan to your homes and businesses through a network of underground pipes.
  5. When additional water is needed to augment the water that passes through the microfiltration process, clean groundwater is collected from an underground "Ranney Well," known as "Collector C" located just south of Silver Creek Park. Patented by the Ranney Corporation, these wells utilize horizontal shafts, like the spokes of a wheel, to increase collection capacities. Collector C was constructed and put into service in 1944.
  6. Excess capacity is stored in reservoirs located throughout the city. Water towers welcome visitors to our community, while maintaining adequate water pressure and supply. Additionally, water is stored in underground reservoirs at the Water Treatment Plant and under the tennis courts at Citizen Park.


How Microfiltration works

Microfiltration benefits

 

CBCWA project

 

CBCWA project plan

CBCWA goals

Central Brown County Water Authority web site