On December 30, 1913, Washington Township residents voted
883 to 18 to create the first water district under the State’s County Water
District Act, the Alameda County Water District (ACWD). The once abundant local
water resources in creeks and aquifers were drying up as a result of increased
farming and population growth. Making the situation worse, private firms were
transporting water away from the area to Oakland and even San Francisco. As a
result, the dangerously low water table emptied wells, seriously affecting
agricultural production vital to the local economy.
In the twenty-first century, water continues to be an
important concern as the population continues to grow, especially in light of
the tech boom that draws more and more residents daily to the Bay Area. Today,
the ACWD Fremont facility processes around 26 million gallons a day and sends
it through 900 miles of pipe. A tour on September 24 acknowledged the
nationwide Imagine A Day Without Water campaign, a project of the Value of
Water Coalition designed to raise awareness about the crucial need for
investment in water-related infrastructure.
Drought, flooding, pollution and climate change all stress
the system, but the AWCD is addressing the problems today, while planning for
the future, and the tour was an opportunity for the public to find out what
just what the AWCD does, what it plans, and what support it needs to continue
doing its job.
Visitors to the Imagine a Day without Water tour, led by ACWD
Community Affairs Specialist Sharene Gonzales, get to see behind the scenes at
the modern low profile facility where technicians monitor filtration and other
treatment processes that bring clean safe drinking water to homes and business
in the tri-city area. Tucked behind tall trees on Mission Blvd and set upon a
lower flank of Mission peak, the unassuming architecture, according to
Gonzales, “was designed specifically to blend into the surrounding neighborhood.”
Water received from the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta runs
through a series of settling pools and a mineral-based filtration system that
pulls organic and inorganic solids from the water and removes microorganisms.
It is no overstatement to say that the single largest threat to human health
through the centuries has been water-borne bacteria and other microscopic
creatures that cause illness and disease. Today, every four hours, ACWD
technicians pull samples and verify that that the physical and chemical
processes designed to protect us are working properly. The tour takes visitors
to the facility through areas where they will see chemical holding tanks,
pumping equipment, filtration equipment and lab facilities—in short the science
and the technology of safe drinking water.
The facility is remarkably “green,” as well. A principle
component in the process of removing solids from the water is ozone, oxygen
that is treated electrically to form oxygen molecules with single extra oxygen
atom loosely attached. The extra oxygen is easily pulled from the oxygen gas
molecule to form compounds with many of the solid contaminants, which then can
be more easily filtered out. Normally, the electricity involved in the ozone-creating
process would come at a high energy cost, but the generators powering the
devices derive their power from solar panels.
The huge four stage filters use different size grades of of
minerals, ranging from an anthracite gravel to a fine quartz sand. When the
filters begin to reach their capacity, they are back-flushed. The sediment rich
effluent is routed into into a large press the size of a rail car where water
pressure forces the mixture between large waffle-iron like panels. The
sediments are trapped and squeezed, turning them into harmless sheets that are
broken up and safely disposed of in local landfill. Efficiency is a key element
in the design of the system; all water used in the process of back-flushing and
hydraulic squeezing is itself reprocessed and sent into the general water
supply, almost completely eliminating any water waste
Understandably, the crew at the AWCD is justifiably proud of
their facility. They perform an important service with expertise and efficiency.
Visitors to the center on the Imagine a Day Without Water tour were given a
warm welcome and left with a heightened sense of the importance of the job AWCD
does and the need to support its efforts to maintain our community’s
life-giving infrastructure.
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