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Overview
The City of New Britain is located southwest of Hartford in Central Connecticut. The cityowned water department serves 17,800 customers through approximately 240 miles of transmission and distribution mains. Average daily demand for the system is 8.75 MGD. The water distribution system can be supplied by a series of surface water sources as well as ground water sources which include the Wolcott reservoir, Whigville Reservoir, Shuttle Meadow Reservoir, Upper and Lower Hart Ponds, White Bridge Surface Supply and Wells, Upper White Bridge Wells, and the Nepaug Reservoir which is owned by the Hartford MDC. AU water is filtered through the New Britain Water Treatment Plant.
Early History
In 1856 a group of prominent New Britain businessmen initiated discussions concerning the construction of a water supply system. It is decided that Shuttle Meadow will be the first reservoir supplemented by an additional reservoir on Walnut Hill.
In 1857 the New Britain Water Department is established. The distribution system construction begins. The Walnut Hill Reservoir, with a capacity of 400 million gallons is completed. The total population of the New Britain Borough was approximately 4,500 people and 37 fire hydrants are placed in service.
New Britain Water Treatment Plant
The City of New Britain replaced its aged water treatment plant in May 2004 and related infrastructure with a new, 22 milliongallon-per-day (mgd) treatment plant. This project was ranked as the top water supply improvement activity in Connecticut from 2000 to 2004 by both the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Public Health. The new plant serves 73,000 people throughout New Britain, Newington, Plainville, Farmington, Berlin, and Bristol.
Original or Innovative Application of New or Existing Techniques
State-of-the-art water treatment processes optimize the plant's ability to contain viruses, bacteria, and other harmful elements in water. Raw water enters the plant and is injected with ozone for oxidation of undesirable organic compounds and cancer causing chemical precursors, and disinfection of bacteria and viruses. Static mixers provide a low energy (no external power) mixing of the chemicals in the raw water. Pre- ozonated water then proceeds to the high-rate plate settlers, where the color and natural organic matter particles settle out. The clarified water continues on to five dual media filters containing granular activated carbon (GAC) and...