SIR: I was really happy and proud to see our newly overhauled $2.1-million Chatham water tower. And I think our Public Utilities Commission has done a good job. Part of the improvements included a paint job inside and out. The exterior is now a bright white and green, with “Chatham” splashed across the tower in large letters. I don’t know the colour of the interior.
There’s only one snag. I was talking to some local residents and it seemed not many people knew much about water. Until recently, some people said, we got our drinking water from the Thames River. Ugh!
If we don’t use water towers, why did our city fathers and mothers spend all that money fixing up the old Chatham water tower. They buy useless railway tracks? OK. But that’s another matter. I’m a Johnny-Come-Lately in this lovely town so I started nosing around recently.
I talked to lots of people. Even today it seems some people only use bottled water because they don’t trust the Chatham-Kent Public Utilities Commission. It was a holiday weekend and the Civic Centre was closed so I couldn’t ask officials for information. But I am a retired newspaperman with a continual quest for knowledge, and I think I know why we still have a water tower.
Forget the river. Even in 2000, Chatham was drawing its drinking water from Lake Erie. That was the year it was decided to upgrade the entire system.
The water from the lake was treated in water treatment plants to remove sediment (by filtration and or settling) and bacteria (typically with ozone, ultraviolet light and chlorine, I guess). By then, the output from the water treatment plant will have become clear, germ-free water. Not a fish in sight!
A high-lift pump then pressurizes the water and sends it to the water system’s primary feeder pipes. The water tower is attached to these feeders and, because it is higher than the land below it, the water flows freely when somebody turns on the tap.
If the pump is producing more water than the water system needs, the excess flows automatically into the tank. If the community needs more water than the pump can supply, then water flows out of the tank to meet the need.
I’m, not an engineer, hydro expert or even a plumber. But I think I might have solved the problem of the Chatham Water Tower. No need to buy bottled water, which could also have come from the tap!
Stephen Beecroft
Chatham
