Ottawa's Local Water Supply
Threats to the water supply?
Types of commotions that happen on land and in the water can affect the quality and present new threats to the water. There are 12 types of drinking water threats .
1. Waste Disposal Sites
2.On-site sewage systems
3.Sewage Works
4.Fuel oil
5.Liquid Oil
6. Nutrients
7. Commercial Fertilizer
Subtopic
9. Road Salt and Snow Storage
10. Chemicals
11. Aquaculture
12. Aircraft De-icing
The province, Ontario has also made an act of 21 threats to drinking water that fall under this categories. Here is a copy that I have found on the Ottawa website- Ottawa.ca/sourceprotection
How are drinking water threats being handled? - The Source Protection Plans contains rules to protect our drinking water supplies from various threats of contagion or over using. Ottawa goes by two Source Protection Plans. The plans uses a variety of ways to reduce drinking water threats, like education/outreach, risk management plans, municipal lands using planning using planning documents are being changed, and prohibiting activities near drinking water wells and the intakes. Citizens should also take care of their environment around them and not litter around drinking water wells.
Where is it treated?
Where is our drinking supply of water treated? Where does it go through the steps of purification and becoming drinking water? The Ottawa River Water is treated, purified, and made drinkable at two purification plants, Britannia and Lemieux Island, and distributes about more than 275 million liters of drinking water in Ottawa every day. Before arriving at your tap, it is kept and reserved at a storage reservoirs, In many rural areas, the city has operates 6 underground water well systems where they go through the 10 steps of being purified and drinkable.
How is it treated?
Step 2: Colligations and Floc cation: Small pollutants such as organic matter, algae and bacteria are captured.
Step 3: Sedimentation : The heavy particles sink to the bottom of a settling tank. Clear water is gathered on the top. Its said that at this stage about 95% of the impurities are gone at this point.
Step 4: Filtration: 99.99% of fine particles of the water are removed by flowing through several filters.
Step 5: Primary Disinfection: To get rid of any remaining microorganisms, chlorine is added to the water.
Step 6: The correction of pH: Water pipes and household plumbing are protected from corrosion by adjusting the waters pH level
Step 7: Secondary Disinfection: A mild disinfectant is added to the water so that it will protect the water as it travels throughout the distribution network.
Step 8: Fluoridation: To prevent dental cavities while drinking, a fluoride is added.
Step 9: Testing: Tests are made that drinking water supply is clean and drinkable. Fun Fact: 100,000 tests are done to make sure water is clean and drinkable
Step 10: Distribution: Between Ottawa and Calgary, clean water is pumped through 3,000 km of water mains. Around 250 million liters of water are gathered in reservoirs
Step 1: Intake: The Ottawa River a kind of treatment plant that takes the water in, it also has a screen that leaves big objects like rocks, bark, natural resources and marine life.
The Water Supply of Ottawa goes through numerous steps to meet the complete purification and drinkable water. We already know that our water supply comes from the Ottawa River. You might notice at first the water has a "tea" resembling color and consists with bark, leaves, and perhaps other natural resources. These are the steps how Ottawa purifies its drinking water:
Where does it come from?
Ottawa's local water supply comes from the Ottawa River, which is connected to the Lake of Two Mountains and St. Lawrence River. The Ottawa River consists of two provinces, Ottawa and Quebec, its 1271 km long! The Ottawa River rises at Lac des Outhouses' than later flows into the west into Lake Timiskaming. The lake than flows to Ottawa and Gatineau area, where it runs into Chaudière Falls and flows to the Rideau, Gatineau and Ottawa River. The Ottawa River consists of large wetlands. The wetlands consists of the Ottawa Beach, Andrew Haydon Park, Breckinridge Nature Reserve, and many more wetlands around it. Did you know that the Ottawa River lies on the Ottawa-Bonchere Garden, that is a Mesozoic Valley that formed 175 million years ago! 175 million years ago, the Ottawa River Valley, Lake Chamberlain, and the St. Lawrence River Valley was disconsolate due to below sea level due to the weight of a glacier ice sheet that began to withdraw at the end of the last ice age. The land slowly began to rise again and took its shape (the shape we have today) and filled with fresh water.
