For most people, the whoosh of water down the drain puts the work behind it out of sight and out of mind until something happens to disrupt the process.

Many water customers turn on the tap to fill their baths, wash dishes or brush their teeth without thinking about the hours and intricate process it takes to bring that water to them, or take it away from their homes once they're done using it.

However, Tuesday's spill of hydraulic fluid into the Owasco River served as a reminder. While a forklift's leak of hydraulic fluid did not affect the nearby water filtration plant, it spread into the water a mere mile from where the city draws its drinking water.

Another reminder came with a storm on Dec. 23 that forced Owasco officials to dump untreated water into a trench near Melrose Road to relieve pressure in the sewer line. That storm also prompted Auburn officials to release water treated in a speedy manner, rather than follow the usual six-hour process.

The luxury of not thinking about the work behind processing water is the mark of good municipal service, City Manager Mark Palesh said. When residents turn on their tap, they don't think about whether water will come out or if it will be clean, he said.

And they don't think about where it's going, even though it could eventually return.

“The water you saw this morning - to take a shower, brush your teeth, flush the toilet - you're going to see again,” said Mark Storrs, senior mechanic at the Water Treatment plant.

Technological advances

As with most services, the way water is filtered has changed over the years.

The Auburn water filtration plant draws the liquid from Owasco Lake. It travels through a series of stations and pipes until it hits the Swift Street plant.

Some residents who live on Auburn's south side drink a cup of water that was part of Owasco Lake three hours before.

When it first began operating, the filtration facility relied on slow sand filters to pull out particles. The current system continues to use sand, but as part of a rapid moving sand filter. The rapid sand method has the liquid traveling through coarse coal, then sand. The process adds aluminum salt and coagulants to make the particles lump together.

“What's happening is we're getting out 80 to 90 percent of particles out,” said Anthony DeCaro, chief operator at the Auburn Water Filtration Plant.

The waste, or sludge, goes to a lagoon and eventually to the wastewater treatment plant.

The purification plant still uses original century-old technology as a backup for the current system. Both the water filtration facility, and the wastewater treatment facility, were built with a support network of duplicate machines.

“Everything in public utilities is (redundant) because we have zero time we can be without operating,” DeCaro said.

Generators support the system, including one recently installed at the filtration plant.

However, this system only works if the duplicate pieces are maintained along with the primary equipment, Storrs said.

Failure to act caused what DeCaro called the crisis of 2005. In August of that year, city residents boiled water because foundation in the three water reservoir beds cracked. The first went in 1984, at which point, the city used the remaining two reservoir beds. When those failed later, the city didn't have anything to fall back on.

People don't make the connection that the water from the tap is the same as the stuff they flush down the toilet, Storrs said.

“Most Americans take this for granted,” he said, adding people realized the facilities' importance during the water crisis. They had to boil water and some businesses couldn't operate.

From lake to faucet

Water's journey begins at a concrete crib, measuring 8 by 10 feet in area and 10 feet deep, that sits on the floor of Owasco Lake. Bars three inches apart cover the opening of the giant pipe. This keeps out large fish, algae clumps, tree limbs, and turtles. A parallel pipe, installed in 1996, delivers a steady shot of chlorine, just enough to kill the zebra muscles that collect near the opening and could physically clog the opening.

The pipe can deliver 1.5 million to 2 million gallons of water each day without having to pump water to the facilities. However, Auburn's customers use far more than that, so the facility is forced to draw water into the system.

The pressure is intense enough that a leak would force water out of the system, rather than creating a weakness that would allow untreated water to enter into the system, DeCaro said.

It takes a batch of water two to three hours to pass through the system.

The system fills a 24.5 foot reservoir on Franklin Street that the water may go through first for some customers. The water network actually has two reservoirs, a 13-foot high, 3-million gallon tank onsite and the 10-million gallon Franklin Street reservoir.

“The pattern is we fill it at night and use it during the day,” DeCaro said.

That method keeps the stored water fresh.

On the occasions customers have taste and odor issues, workers can add a powdered active carbon. The substance has holes where the bad-taste causing materials can latch on, and then be removed with the carbon.

These problems often arise in spring and fall. When the water is clearer, the sun reaches farther in the water and boosts algae growth.

“(Bad water taste) from the sanitation standpoint is not a hazard at all, but it is unpleasant,” DeCaro said. “It may drive people to drink other things.”

History written in water

In 1860, the city built a piping system to carry water from the Owasco River. The slow sand filter station came along in 1916. That system requires acreage for the sand and requires no pretreatment. It takes nearly three-quarters of a gallon of water one minute to travel through a square foot of sand in the slow filter. The current system, aptly named the rapid sand method, filters 3.5 gallons in that time.

The decision to create stations to filter and pump came in the 1870s, when Auburn residents began to use more water than could naturally flow through the existing pipes.

Starting in 1910, residents raised the money to buy the land on Swift Street near the Owasco River, build a pumping station nearby, and create a treatment system.

The city's growth then caused the plant to expand its treatment. In the 1960s, workers began using a rapid sand system.

The city's toilet

On the other end of the cycle, the sewer and wastewater treatment facility was planned in 1935, and constructed the following year. A major reconstruction happened in 1972, and later in 1996, both times when new waves of environmental regulations hit municipalities.

In the beginning of the process, workers filtered the wastewater, disinfected it with chorine and then released to the Owasco River. As the DEC researchers investigated the impact of 400 pounds of the chemical flushed into the natural habitat annually, they discovered no fish in the water and few livestock drank from the banks.

In the 1970s, the plant began using trickling filters, which tried to create the affect of a small brook with five feet of rocks to allow the water to clean itself on the rocks.

Tucked away in the lowest part of the city, the multi-building facility on Bradley Street has an important job.

“People don't realize that this place exists,” Storrs said.

Auburn uses a biological process involving bacteria rather than chemicals. The aerobic bacteria uses the oxygen to feast on waste particles, after inorganic material is removed. A settling tank separates the solid waste from the water.

Any inorganic material goes to the landfill. The leftover solid waste goes through a belt press to take out water and leave behind compact sludge. The sludge is then taken to the next room, which has a 22-foot in diameter incinerator.

The six hearths burn about 6,000 pounds per hour, and is capable of handling 2,500 more tons. The sludge turns into half its weight in ash, which goes to the landfill.

Before the treated water is released to the river a few feet away, it's hit by a shot of ultraviolet light to kill any remaining bacteria.

“The water that leaves our plant is cleaner than what's there,” Storrs said.

Meanwhile, what comes into the plant is everything people throw in the drain or flush down the commode.

Hypodermic needles are not an uncommon find in the receiving stream. Razors, synthetic chemicals, and heavy metals travel with tissue and rags.

With Auburn's “mini-city” at Auburn Correctional Facility, Storrs has a collection of pictures from the prison, such as ID cards, likely flushed during a shake down. He's found a bowling ball, a bent-up tricycle and money.

“This is the city toilet,” Storrs said. “We face everything here.”

Part of the risk for a dozen of the workers is they don't know what they are exposed to in the water. Storrs' staff has an important, but unglamorous, task of making sure the river, and subsequently the lake, stays clean.

“You got to get it in here,” he said, tapping his forehead, “that whatever flushes down your toilet goes here.”

The plant is set up to treat residential sewage. Other particles and substances upset the process. This includes disinfectants that kill the bacteria that drive the treatment process.

The system is all gravity fed. The facility is at the lowest point of the city. The plant is capable of handling 12 million gallons daily but usually processes 8.5 million gallons.

Storrs says most people don't realize what happens to process the water, or even that the water in the river has gone through a treatment cycle.

“How much do you want to pay for a clean glass of water?” Storrs rhetorically asks, when he's approached about high sewer rates.

Staff writer Jessica Soule can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 267 or jessica.soule@lee.net