Why do we need to treat our water?

Private and public drinking water systems use different water treatment methods all around the country to provide safe drinking water for each local community. While Donegal and Cork are at oppisite ends of the country and may obviously be a little different, private and public water systems often use a simmilar series of water treatment steps that include coagulation, flocculation, flotation, filtration, and disinfection water treatment steps. but even neighbouring townlands can easily have different chemical balance that will have effect the water reactions to daily weekly, and season weather chaanges in the waters hinterland. 

First Step: Hilltop Reservoirs

Most reservoirs are formed by constructing dams across rivers. A reservoir can also be formed from a natural lake whose outlet has been dammed to control the water level. The dam controls the amount of water that flows out of the reservoir. Here in County Monaghan we must overcome the beauty of our rolling drumlins and construct standing Hilltop Reservoirs to create the natural water pressure to bring our raw and treated water to every home and farm in our community. Using our primary pump we bring our Raw water from Bairds Shore to the hilltop at Corcaghan

Coagulation

Coagulation is often the first step in water treatment. During coagulation, chemicals with a positive charge are added to the water. The positive charge neutralizes the negative charge of dirt and other dissolved particles in the water. When this occurs, the particles bind with the chemicals to form slightly larger particles. Common chemicals used in this step include specific types of salts, aluminum, or iron.

Flocculation

Flocculation follows the coagulation step. Flocculation is the gentle mixing of the water to form larger, heavier particles called flocs. Often, water treatment plants will add additional chemicals during this step to help the flocs form.

Flotation

Flotation is one of the steps water treatment plants use to separate out solids from the water. During flotation, flocs settle to the bottom of the water because they are heavier than water.

Filtration

Once the flocs have settled to the bottom of the water, the clear water on top is filtered to separate additional solids from the water. During filtration, the clear water passes through filters that have different pore sizes and are made of different materials (such as sand, gravel, and charcoal). These filters remove dissolved particles and germs, such as dust, chemicals, parasites, bacteria, and viruses. Activated carbon filters also remove any bad odors.