Village of Versailles Water Treatment Plant
The current Village of Versailles Water Treatment Plant is located at 350 Grand Ave. and went online in 2006. The water treatment plant is rated at 1.5 million gallons per day (MGD). The Water/Wastewater Plant manager and two water/wastewater plant operators operate and maintain the water treatment plant 365 days a year. Versailles utilizes groundwater from ten production wells that supply raw water to the treatment plant. Five of the wells are located near the former Water Treatment Plant closer to Grand Ave., with five other wells located closer to the new Water Treatment Plant.
The water rater is pumped from the well field to the aerator at the treatment plant. Outside air is blown into the aerator as the water passed through. The introduction of air to the raw water provides oxidation of iron and reduction of carbon dioxide in the raw water. In addition, chlorine is added at the aerator for the first step of disinfection and to strip the raw water of ammonia that is found in ground water.
From the aerator the water flows by gravity to the solids contact clarifier. Lime and soda ash are added to the clarifier for water softening and coagulation of water. Solids settled for the water are collected in the bottom of the clarifier and wasted to the lime sludge storage tank located east of the water treatment plant.
The clarified water then moves into the recarbonation tanks where carbon dioxide is added. Recarbonation is the process to adjust the alkalinity (pH) of the finished water. The Village maintains its finished water in the alkaline range of 8.3-8.8 on the pH scale
The water continues through the plant to the gravity sand filters and moves downward by gravity through 18” of anthracite coal and 12” of sand. The filters remove any remaining suspended chemicals and bacteria present in the water.
The water leaves the filters and flows into the supplemental backwash tank. The supplemental backwash tank is used to clean the gravity sand filters by back flushing them with filtered water. The supplement backwash tank is equipped with pumps to back flush the filters for cleaning as needed. When the filters do not need cleaned the water flows form the supplemental backwash tank to the clearwell. The supplemental backwash tank is also where the last dose of chlorine is added to the finished the water before it is ready for use in the distribution system.
The clearwell has the capacity to store 225,000 gallons of finished water. As the Village water system requires water, the water flows into the high service pump wells where it is pumped to the distribution system by the high service pumps. The Village also utilizes two 500,000-gallon water towers to store water and provide stable pressure for the distribution system. The two towers are entitled the WJ Bohman Tower located on the east side of the Village, and the Terry St. Tower located on the north side.
2023 Annual Consumer Confidence Report
Village of Versailles Wastewater Treatment Plant
The Village of Versailles Wastewater Treatment Plant is located at 300 Grand Ave. The Village’s first wastewater treatment plant was constructed on this same site in 1939. Since that time, the plant has been modified and expanded, as recently as 2010, to meet new regulatory requirements and to provide for local growth.
The wastewater treatment plant is fed from the Village’s sanitary sewer collection system that utilizes gravity flow mains and five lift stations to move flow to the Grand Ave. Lift Station that then transports all wastewater under Swamp Creek to the plant for treatment. The treatment plant is currently rated at 750,000 gallons per day (0.750 MGD).
Wastewater treatment is accomplished in stages beginning with fine screening of the wastewater to remove materials like wood, paper, plastics, metals, rock fragments, and other foreign material items that are not amenable to treatment. These removed materials are land-filled. The screened wastewater next flows by gravity to the oxidation ditch which is an aerated tank where biological treatment is accomplished. This process is effective in removing organic, nitrogen, and phosphorous containing wastes using microscopic bacteria. Following biological treatment, the wastewater flows into two clarifiers which are large circular tanks where quiescent conditions exist to allow the solid materials present in the wastewater to settle to the bottom, leaving a very clear liquid. This clear liquid, also referred to as clarified effluent is then routed to an open channel where it is disinfected with ultraviolet (UV) light to kill harmful bacteria prior to being released into Swamp Creek. The solids that are captured during the treatment process are pumped to a large tank, called a digester where the solids undergo additional aeration to stabilize to a product that is referred to as biosolids. Once the biosolids are stabilized, they can be land applied just like liquid livestock manure utilizing the Village’s 4000-gallon liquid application tank that knives the waste into the soil acting as fertilizer for the field. In 2019, the Village constructed a sludge dewatering system adjacent to the digester to allow for the biosolids to be stripped of the liquid content allow for a more concentrated waste product that is more easily stored and land-applied onto agricultural fields as well as the option to land fill the material if no fields are available at that time of the year.
The wastewater plant is operated and maintained by the Water/Wastewater Plant Manager along with two water/wastewater plant managers 365 days a year.
