LAKEPORT >> This week, the City of Lakeport will welcome the public to have a look inside its surface water treatment plant. This will be the first open house for the facility, which was built in 1981 and received a major overhaul in 2000. The plant operates 24 hours a day, using modern filtration technology to make Clear Lake water potable. Last year, the plant processed 234 million gallons of water.
According to Lakeport Utilities Superintendent Paul Harris, the open house has been planned because “We want to give our customers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce clean drinking water.” Harris added that the plant uses an alternative filtration system called Trident, which “can treat water effectively and with a much smaller footprint than a conventional plant.”
In addition to Clear Lake, the City sources water from two pairs of wells in the Scott’s Valley Aquifer: one in Scott’s Creek and one at Green Ranch. All four wells meet or exceed both EPA and California regulations, while the surface water treatment plant can “surpass current and future water quality standards” at both the State and Federal levels, according to the city’s website.
Although the four wells provide Lakeport with most of its water at a combined capacity of 2.8 million gallons a day, the surface water treatment plant offers a considerable supplement at a maximum output of 1.7 million gallons daily. The surface water treatment plant has a lot of work to do to produce potable water: as stated in the City of Lakeport’s Water Master Plan, the plant is responsible for “pre-ozonation, coagulation, upflow clarification, multimedia filtration, post-ozonation, activated carbon, and chlorine disinfection” of Clear Lake water.
One challenge facing the plant is the blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) that have been a persistent nuisance to Lake County residents. The algae must be entirely removed by the treatment plant, necessitating an “advanced treatment process,” according to the Plan.
To learn more about how Lakeport residents get clean drinking water, visit the surface water treatment plant at 590 Konocti Avenue (across from the Lakeport Senior Center), from 4— 7 p.m. tomorrow, May 30. The event is free, and visitors will receive a full tour of the plant, during which the Water Division staff can answer questions.
