Sources of Water
New York City has several water supply sources to fulfill the water requirements for its population. Among the sources include the Lower Manhattan Lake (Water Network, 1). It is important to note that the rising population of the City continuous to exert pressure on water resources to meet the rising demand for different applications. That has compelled relevant departments to explore other sources to incorporate into its water supply system.
These sources include sunken wells, Aqueduct Systems from Croton River, and upstate watersheds among others. Notably, New York City’s municipal water supply system responds by extensively identifying new sources to capture more water to satisfy domestic, industrial, and fire protection needs. To meet these needs, water tunnels are extensively used in the city’s water supply system to transport the commodity from source to destination.
These tunnels include the New York City Water Tunnel No. 1 that links Hillview reservoir to the east river via tunnel two (Water Network, 3), Water Tunnel No. 2 that forms a link with tunnel two at the Hillview reservoir completing one of the largest water supply systems in the world. New York City Water Tunnel No. 3 is also in the supply chain and is projected to provide a third water supply line for the city upon its completion due in 2020.
It is important to note that the New York water supply falls into government managed projects, private contracts particularly during the construction process to optimize resource utilization and cost-effectiveness, and under public trusts (Bloomberg & Lloyd, 1).
The average daily consumption of water in New York is estimated to be 1.086 billion gallons. However, the average consumption is projected to rise due to droughts and other needs such as fire protection, industrial and domestic uses. It is vital to note that due to the shortage of clean water, treatment facilities provide another alternative source of water to meet the ever-rising needs for water in New York City. Typically, the two sources include ground and surface water.
Function of Water Treatment Facilities
Water treatment facilities play a critical role in ensuring the quality of water is appropriately maintained for a variety of purposes such as for drinking, fire fighting, and other applications. These facilities play a role in the filtration process where the treatment processes occur in multiple steps in the multiple-barrier process. These filtration elements ensure that the sources of the city’s water are appropriately protected and the quality of water appropriately maintained to the desired standards.
Notably, filtration is much easier to carry out on groundwater than is possible with surface water. It is also important to note that surface water has a smaller amount of mineral, bacterial infection, and other impurities while groundwater has more impurities in the form of suspended solids that are removed by water treatment facilities.
New York’s water treatment programs incorporate sedimentation, filtration, coagulation, and chemical treatment techniques to disinfect drinking water. That is typical of Croton Water Filtration Plants and other underwater water filtration plants. The filtration process exploits the use of gravity to minimize the use of energy in the filtration process, though, in various instances, pumping is one of the mechanisms used in the disinfection process (Water Network, 3).
Three Basic Mechanisms of Moving Water
However, several mechanisms are used to transport water from the source to the supply points. Direct piping is one of the methods used to transport water in New York City. However, gravity is occasionally used, but a combination of both direct pumping and gravity contributes to the transportation process. Gravity relies on changes in the gradient of the piping system to allow the use of gravity to enable water to gain some propulsion force under gravity.
However, this method is least relied upon. On the other side, direct pumping is the next most commonly used water transportation method. The method relies on the use of a series of pumps at different points to appreciate the water pressure. Here, electric water pumps are commonly used though diesel pumps are at times used in the network (Bloomberg & Lloyd, 2). That enables water to achieve sufficient pressure to flow through a network of pipes that serve New York City.
Piping System
New York’s water piping system integrates the looping system, the tree system, and the grid system. That is typical of the three water supply sources besides other smaller sources such as wells. Typically, the tree system is characterized by distribution lines or pipes that are connected to water treatment plants which act as a primary feed (Bloomberg & Lloyd, 2). In other areas, a loop system is rarely used in the supply chain from a water treatment plant to the destination. The pipes are characteristically made of steel and plastic and rarely, the use of concrete. Each of the pipes incorporates the use of valves to control the flow. These valves at various points are non-indicative while others provide readings.
Works Cited
Bloomberg, Michael, R. & Lloyd, Emily. New York City’s Wastewater Treatment System. Cleaning the Water We Use • Protecting the Environment We Live In. n.d. Web.
Water Network. Develop critical backup systems for our aging water network to ensure long-term reliability. n.d. Web.