June 8, 1909: John L. Leal, George W. Fuller and George A. Johnson present papers at the AWWA annual conference on this day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on the chloride of lime treatment system at Boonton Reservoir, New Jersey. Unlike previous presentations on the addition of disinfection chemicals to water, the three papers were received enthusiastically by the audience. The then President of AWWA, William P. Mason, stated in the discussion section of the papers, “…when I first came in contact with this process I was a very strong disbeliever; in fact, I am on record in print as not approving of the process. I have been converted, however…because of the results of many experiments. I found, very greatly to my surprise, that the dose was exceedingly small that was required to produce satisfactory treatment.” The full story of the chlorination of the Jersey City water supply can be found in The Chlorine Revolution which was published in April 2013.
“Testimony at the second Jersey City trial described the plant facilities in some detail, and later publications gave an overview of the facilities along with selected design details.
Figure 10-1 is a schematic of the chloride of lime feed facility at Boonton. According to Fuller’s testimony, he made only nine engineering design drawings to guide the contractor during construction of the plant. For an equivalent facility today, dozens of drawings would be required.
The chloride of lime facility was housed in a one-story wooden building that was constructed adjacent to the gate house located at the foot of Boonton Dam. In addition to all of the mechanical equipment required to feed chloride of lime, the building housed a small laboratory used to perform simple chemical tests and to conduct bacteriological examinations.
The concentrated chloride of lime powder was put into dissolving tanks along with dilution water from the reservoir (Figure 10-1). Typically, the bleaching powder contained 35 percent available chlorine. A highly concentrated solution of chloride of lime was made in the dissolving tanks and then fed by gravity into the solution tanks. More dilution water was added to the solution tanks to create the desired strength for the chloride of lime mixture. Triplicate pairs of dissolving and solution tanks allowed the operator to produce large batches (about 10,000 gallons each) of 0.5–1 percent dilute solutions.
A belt-driven turbine pump4 (in duplicate) moved the dilute solution up to one of the two orifice tanks. The orifice tanks were positioned at a relatively high elevation, enabling them to feed chlorine solution by gravity into the chamber below. The chamber was downstream of the 48-inch pipelines connecting the outlet tower of the dam to the pipeline delivering water to Jersey City. Duplicate orifice tanks were a critical design factor because chloride of lime in 0.5–1 percent solutions tended to build up solid deposits on the sides of the orifice plate and obstruct the opening.”
Reference: McGuire, Michael J. 2013. The Chlorine Revolution: Water Disinfection and the Fight to Save Lives. Denver, CO:American Water Works Association.