The Sawyer Water Purification Plant, [1] formerly the South Water Purification Plant, is the first water filtration plant built in the City of Chicago. When completed in 1947, it was the largest such plant in the world. [2]
The plant was under construction for many years, slowed by the Great Depression. Its construction was approved in 1930 and the plant began operation in 1947. [2] Water is drawn from a crib in Lake Michigan that has an intake about 20–30 feet below the surface of the lake and is then drawn through a tunnel below the lake bed to the treatment plant, and then put through several steps to filter suspended particles and add chemicals including chlorine to disinfect the water. [3] This system relies on pumps, not on gravity flow, to move the clean water. [3]
Two main cribs are about 2.5 miles away from the shore. [4] The 68th Street / Dunne cribs feed water to this filtration plant. This plant was the largest filtration plant in the world until Chicago completed its second filtration plant, the Central plant (now called the Jardine Water Purification Plant) was completed in 1964. [2]
On September 19, 2016, the City of Chicago renamed the South Water Purification Plant to the Sawyer Water Purification Plant to honor the former Mayor Eugene Sawyer. [5] The water filtration plant is located at 3300 E. Cheltenham Place on the South Side along the lake near Rainbow Beach Park. [5]
This plant and the Jardine Water Purification Plant supply the water for the City of Chicago and many surrounding suburbs that purchase their drinking water from the City of Chicago, about 1 billion gallons a day. [4]
The city of Chicago has voted for a major renovation of the filtration plant in 2020. The work is estimated at $74.5 million, and will include restoration of the roof of the 1941 building and a 1964 addition. [6]
A water filter removes impurities by lowering contamination of water using a fine physical barrier, a chemical process, or a biological process. Filters cleanse water to different extents, for purposes such as: providing agricultural irrigation, accessible drinking water, public and private aquariums, and the safe use of ponds and swimming pools.
The R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is both a crucial piece of infrastructure and an architecturally acclaimed historic building named after the longtime commissioner of Toronto's public works Roland Caldwell Harris. The plant's architect was Thomas C. Pomphrey with engineers H.G. Acres and William Gore. It is located in the east of the city at the eastern end of Queen Street and at the foot of Victoria Park Avenue along the shore of Lake Ontario in the Beaches neighbourhood in the former city of Scarborough.
The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, historically known as the Chicago Drainage Canal, is a 28-mile-long (45 km) canal system that connects the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River. It reverses the direction of the Main Stem and the South Branch of the Chicago River, which now flows out of Lake Michigan rather than into it. The related Calumet-Saganashkee Channel does the same for the Calumet River a short distance to the south, joining the Chicago canal about halfway along its route to the Des Plaines. The two provide the only navigation for ships between the Great Lakes Waterway and the Mississippi River system.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a regional wholesaler and the largest supplier of treated water in the United States. The name is usually shortened to "Met," "Metropolitan," or "MWD." It is a cooperative of fourteen cities, eleven municipal water districts, and one county water authority, that provides water to 19 million people in a 5,200-square-mile (13,000 km2) service area. It was created by an act of the California State Legislature in 1928, primarily to build and operate the Colorado River Aqueduct. Metropolitan became the first contractor to the State Water Project in 1960.
Toronto Water is the municipal division of the City of Toronto under Infrastructure and Development Services responsible for the water supply network, and stormwater and wastewater management in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as well as parts of Peel and York Regions.
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD), originally known as the Sanitary District of Chicago, is a special-purpose district chartered to operate in Cook County, Illinois since 1889. Although its name may imply otherwise, it is not a part of the City of Chicago's local government but is created by Illinois state government with an elected Board of Commissioners. The MWRD's main purposes are the reclamation and treatment of wastewater and flood water abatement in Cook County to protect the health and safety of citizens and of area waterways. In 1900, the District notably reversed the flow of the Chicago River, and it is currently involved in the large multi-decade construction of the "Deep Tunnel", Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP).
The McMillan Reservoir is a reservoir in Washington, D.C., that supplies the majority of the city's municipal water. It was originally called the Howard University Reservoir or the Washington City Reservoir, and was completed in 1902 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The water cribs in Chicago are structures built to house and protect offshore water intakes used to supply the City of Chicago with drinking water from Lake Michigan. Water is collected and transported through tunnels located close to 200 feet (61 m) beneath the lake, varying in shape from circular to oval, and ranging in diameter from 10 to 20 feet. The tunnels lead from the water cribs to Pumping Stations located onshore, then to water purification plants Jardine Water Purification Plant and the Sawyer Water Purification Plant, where the water is then treated before being pumped to all parts of the city as well as 118 suburbs.
Promontory Point is a man-made peninsula jutting into Lake Michigan. It is located in Chicago's Burnham Park. The Point was constructed from landfill and by the late 1930s was protected by a seawall or revetment. The revetment was designed and constructed by Chicago Park District engineers and consists of limestone blocks arranged in a series of four steps leading to a promenade.
The Jardine Water Purification Plant, formerly the Central District Filtration Plant, is a water filtration plant located at 1000 East Ohio Street, north of Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. It draws raw water from two of the city's water cribs far offshore in Lake Michigan and supplies two thirds of City of Chicago consumers in the northern, downtown, and western parts of the city and to many northern and western surrounding suburbs.
The New Croton Aqueduct is an aqueduct in the New York City water supply system in Westchester County, New York carrying the water of the Croton Watershed. Built roughly parallel to the Old Croton Aqueduct it originally augmented, the new system opened in 1890. The old aqueduct remained in service until 1955, when supply from the Delaware and Catskill Aqueducts was sufficient to take it off line.
George Warren Fuller was an American sanitary engineer who was also trained in bacteriology and chemistry. His career extended from 1890 to 1934 and he was responsible for important innovations in water and wastewater treatment. He designed and built the first modern water filtration plant, and he designed and built the first chlorination system that disinfected a U.S. drinking water supply. In addition, he performed groundbreaking engineering work on sewage treatment facilities in the U.S. He was President of both the American Water Works Association and the American Public Health Association, and he was recognized internationally as an expert civil and sanitary engineer.
Allen Hazen was an American civil engineer and an expert in hydraulics, flood control, water purification and sewage treatment. His career extended from 1888 to 1930, and he is, perhaps, best known for his contributions to hydraulics with the Hazen-Williams equation. Hazen published some of the seminal works on sedimentation and filtration. He was President of the New England Water Works Association and Vice President of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
John Robert Baylis was an American chemist and sanitary engineer. His career extended from about 1905 to 1963 and he is best known for his work in applied research to improve drinking water purification.
The Chicago Lake Tunnel was the first of several tunnels built from the city of Chicago's shore on Lake Michigan two miles out into the lake to access unpolluted fresh water far from the city's sewage.
Generally, the Chicago Harbor comprises the public rivers, canals, and lakes within the territorial limits of the City of Chicago and all connecting slips, basins, piers, breakwaters, and permanent structures therein for a distance of three miles from the shore between the extended north and south lines of the city. The greater Chicago Harbor includes portions of the Chicago River, the Calumet River, the Ogden Canal, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, Lake Calumet, and Lake Michigan.
Lake Montebello is a reservoir located near Mayfield and Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello in Northeast Baltimore City in central Maryland. The lake was excavated and constructed in 1881, and nearby Montebello Filtration Plants 1 and 2 were completed in 1915 and 1928, respectively. The lake contains approximately 410 million US gallons (1,600,000 m3) of water, with a maximum storage of 606 million US gallons (2,290,000 m3). Today, the lake continues to act as a settling basin for what goes on in the filtration plant. A 1.3 mile bike and walking path lines the lake and are used as a recreational area for the surrounding community.
The Monroe Avenue Water Filtration Plant is a municipal water treatment plant located at 430 Monroe Avenue NW in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Built in 1910, it was likely the first water filtration plant in Michigan. In 1945, the plant was the site of the first public introduction of water fluoridation in the United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. The building now serves as an event center, known as Clearwater Place.
The Croton Water Filtration Plant, is a drinking water treatment facility in New York City which began operation in 2015. The plant construction cost was over $3 billion, The facility was built 160 feet (49 m) under Van Cortlandt Park's Mosholu Golf Course in the Bronx.