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<br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />Operators and administrative support needs to be focused on the water treatment plant. <br />Adequate budget and manpower should be assigned to the WTP operating account and <br />maintenance account. Management should account for other areas of the utility system <br />separately. <br /> <br />4.4 Performance Assessment <br /> <br />The two significant elements of the treatment plant's overall performance, in very basic <br />terms, are the removal of turbidity and effective disinfection of the clarified water. <br /> <br />Turbidity Removal <br /> <br />Turbidity measurement for the purposes of process control is rated as marginal. Refer <br />to the Filtration Section. A continuous reading turbidimeter is almost essential to monitor <br />filter effluent waters. Critical times for turbidity breakthrough are upon starting a dirty filter <br />and immediately after backwash as the clean filter is placed in operation. The Lyons plant <br />does not conduct such monitoring due to lack of equipment and lack of emphasis on the part of <br />the operators. Installation and use of a continuous reading turbidimeter is considered <br />mandatory if a meaningful data analysis is to be conducted. Such an analysis could assess the <br />capability of the system to remove Giardia cysts and could provide the basis for operations <br />improvements over a period of time. Such assessments and operations improvements could <br />possibly postpone the need for some constructed modifications to the existing facilities. <br />Additionally, improvements in the flocculation/sedimentation processes, as discussed in a <br />previous section, should ease any filtration problems and improve turbidity removal rates. <br /> <br />The turbidity standard for potable water leaving the plant is 0.5 NTU or less in at least 95 <br />percent of the representative samples taken each month. The operations log for 1993 shows <br />turbidity readings taken about every 4 hours, which meets the State's sampling requirement. <br />Furthermore, scanning the data suggests that the effluent turbidities meet this standard. <br />However, due to the reasons stated above, the existing data may not be representative of the <br />actual performance of the system. Therefore, it cannot be stated that the plant effluent meets <br />existing standards with any degree of certainty. <br /> <br />Disinfection <br /> <br />The State regulates the disinfection process indirectly. That is, samples of water taken <br />from the water distribution system must be free of indicator microorganisms. The presence of <br />free and residual disinfectant (chlorine) in the parts of the system farthest from the treatment <br />plant can partially assure this. Design criteria require that: an actual chlorine contact time of <br />30 minutes or more be achieved, that chlorine demands be anticipated such that capacity is <br /> <br />24 <br />