The Breese Water Treatment Plant is a conventional surface water treatment plant.  Its raw water source is Shoal Creek with a thirty day supply reservoir adjacent to it.  We treat water by coagulation and sedimentation.
The raw water is pumped from either the creek or the reservoir where potassium permanganate is added.  This chemical is a strong oxidizer.  We use it to oxidize manganese into an insoluble form so it can be removed by settling out in the basins or by filtering it out.  The water then enters the plant and aluminum sulfate (alum) and a cationic polyelectrolyte is added to the water and mixed.  The chemicals react with the dirt and slit in the water to form floc.  These chemicals have a positive charge and the dirt has a negative charge so they attract each other to form floc.
The water continues to mix and an anionic polyelectrolyte in added.  This polymer is used to kind of glue the floc together to form bigger and heavier floc.  This will help in the settling process.  Calcium hydroxide (lime) is then add to the water for PH control.
The water continues through the mixer and in the last one activated carbon is added for taste and odor control.  It then enters the settling basins, the floc settles out and enters troughs that bring it through the filters.  Chlorine is added at the trough for disaffection purposes.  After the water is filtered it is collected in the clear well where fluoride, ammonia and more chlorine is added.
The plant supplies the City of Breese, St. Rose and the North Water District.  It also supplies the village of Germantown.  It averages 555,000 gallons per day.  The maximum output capacity of the plant is 1,200,000 gallons per day.  The maximum demand in one day is 900,000 gallons.  The plant serves a population of about 4100 people in the City of Breese alone.