The University Water Treatment Plant functions as both a water source for the campus and a research facility for advanced study in Environmental Engineering. This document is to give readers an understanding of the University 's water treatment process. The basic unit operations and processes involved are chemical pretreatment , coagulation , sedimentation , softening by chemical precipitation , recarbonation , disinfection , and filtration . The following description will begin with raw water entering the plant and end with potable water.
Raw water is pumped from the Iowa River below the surface.
Conditions of the raw water vary with the season and weather. Influent turbidity, a measure of a liquid's clarity and color, ranges from over 300 NTU during the spring rains to about 3 NTU during the winter months. Contributing factors to turbidity are agricultural run-off, top soil erosion, and pollution. Calcium hardness contributes to about two-thirds the total hardness. Water hardness is defined as the magnesium and calcium i on content of water.