The Sierra Pacific’s Glendale Water Facility, built in 1976, provides twenty-five million gallons per day to the Reno, Sparks’s community. Their water purification is done through a few simple processes. Water, from the Truckee River, is first pooled, and then run through a trash rack to catch large debris such as logs. From there, at a velocity of two feet per second it travels through a one-fourth inch thick traveling water screen that clears away items such as leaves. Next the water enters the distribution box. In this box, chemicals can be added to begin the disinfection process. The water is then sent to a settling basin where the grit can be removed. Also, if the river becomes excessively muddy, the water can be sent to a second settling pond to remove the drudge. Once the grit has been removed the water flows to the pump station. In the pump station is a motor control center and several 200 hsp turbine pumps which push the water through the elbow in the pipe to where it can flow from gravity.

Coagulation, one of the first main processes, enlarges the particles for easier purification. The left over particles are considered to have a negative charge. Therefore alum is added to neutralize the particles. Next additional chemicals are added to stabilize the particles. This causes the sticky polymers to help adhere the various particles together.

Flocculation, the next process, is a violent mixing of the polymers and chemicals throughout the water. This is done in three main stages. Each stage is in an order of decreasing energy so that the particles now stuck together, flock, will not brake apart. The number and velocity of paddles controls the energy.

Sedimentation is then done so that the clear water will flow at the top of the machine and the sludge at the bottom. Several parallel plate senders that are angled at fifty-five degrees accomplish this process. The flock flows in, hits the top of the plates and slides down speeding up the settlementation. The sludge is then vacuumed up, placed in a basin to dry, and finally checked with standards.

Disinfection of the water is accomplished by two ways, addition of chemicals and filtration. One main virus, giardia is killed by the addition on NaHCl until the chlorine is at a ratio of 1 ppm. Cryptosporidium, on the other hand has to be physically removed by a fine mesh filter to catch its particles at three to five microns. Glendale then runs 1500 lab tests a month, and a weekly check for cryptosporidium just to make sure the water is safe.

Distribution is then accomplished by several high-powered discharge pumps. Each of these pumps run at 700 hsp, and pump out 8,880 gallons per minute at a pressure around 85 psi. The raw cost for the purification of the water is $100 per million gallons. However, when the lab tests and employment fees are considered it costs about $500 per million gallons. The price is still a reasonable sum considering the various processes the water underwent to obtain a high level of quality for the Reno, Sparks’ communities.