How It All Works

The water line discharges directly into a raw water tank in the treatment plant.  It should be noted that these lines do not supply any water to the resort for the spring and summer irrigation of the golf course. Irrigation water for the golf course is obtained from ponds within the Wintergreen Resort properties.	Treated water tank
Once inside the water treatment plant, the water is pumped from the “raw water tank” through a pressurized filter system where any suspended dirt and other material sediment is removed. The water is then chlorinated and placed in treated water tanks (currently 2 tanks) ready for delivery and consumption by the subdivision and the resort. In 2003, additional treated water tanks were added to increase the “time” the water is chlorinated before distribution to the subdivision. Alberta Environment has requested this addition due to the increased demand as a result of the new housing subdivision.	Pressurized Filter System
As the filters clean the water, they accumulate a sludge which is periodically removed from the filters (depending on the sediment load in the water). To clean these filters, water is taken from the clean treated water and back flushed through the filters until the sludge has been removed and the filters are ready for another cycle. When the river is very turbid (such as during the spring run off when the sediment load in the water increases), the filters must be cleaned more frequently. During these times, the total output of the plant is reduced. The clean water required for back flushing of the filters can be up to 10-15% of the clean water produced, a significant amount in times of high turbidity of the raw water.
Pumps inside the treatment plant extract the water from the treated water tanks and through a header system deliver the water to the subdivision, the Wintergreen Resort and the new 14 lot subdivision below the resort.The plant is controlled on a continuing basis by a computer system which operates the plant to meet domestic demand. The system will run the plant under normal operating conditions, but cannot react to abnormal circumstances such as no raw water to the plant or low supply of treated water. When such an event occurs, our operator is automatically phoned and they are able to interrogate the control system to diagnose the problem. Further, at any time they can connect to the system to see the present status of the plant operation.	Pumps inside treatment plant
The plant is controlled and operated under the guidelines and regulations of Alberta Environment. As such, the physical plant and its operation have to be licensed as capable of meeting potable water requirements. The plant has to be operated by an accredited organization. Water samples are tested daily by the operator. More extensive system and water quality are performed on a monthly and annual basis and provided to Alberta Environment.For an abnormal event (such as the contamination of June 2003), a separate event report has to be submitted outlining the problem, the test results and the mitigative measures taken.