UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, JAMAICA

Course Name:

Inoroganic Chemical Technology

Submitted to:

Lt G. Junior Virgo

Title of Assignment:

A report on the Mona Reservoir and Treatment Plant

Student Names:

Ms. Brandeice Barrett

1201539

Ms. Shannon McCarthy 1300585

Date of Submission :

October 3 ,2015

Overview of the Water Treatment Process

On September 25, 2015 a team of Chemical Engineering students from the University of
Technology, Jamaica visited the NWC Mona Reservoir and Treatment Plant located in the parish
of St, Andrew. A walk through tour of the facility was conducted by Mr. Smith and Mr. John.
The first stop on the tour was the Mona Reservoir. Mr Smith explained that at the present time
the reservoir was at 27% capacity due to the persistent drought that the country was experiencing
which has been a growing concern for three consecutive years. He however stated that there
were signs of improvement due to rainfall in the surrounding mountains. The reservoir at full
capacity holds 825 million gallons of water. This water which enters the reservoir via channels is
mainly supplied by the Hope River and also from the Yallahs pipeline by throttling the flow
control valves at the plant where water is made to spill into the reservoir. If this step is not done
then the water in the pipeline will bypass the reservoir and be fed directly to the plant for
treatment. The latter is what we observed at the time of the visit.
The reservoir with a depth of 35ft and a 2 mile circumference was constructed as a storage area
for water for periods when the country is experiencing little to no rainfall. However, due to the
low capacity the treatment plant has opted to close off the inlet in the large Drawoff Tower (has
four inlets at different heights) that draws water from the reservoir and sends it to the treatment
plant, and relay solely on the Yallahs River Pipeline. This brought us to the second leg of the tour
at the Mona Treatment Plant.
The Mona Water Treatment Plant is a 15 million gallons per day (mig/d) rapid gravity filtration
plant. Water for treatment can be drawn from the Mona Reservoir through the Drawoff Tower or

directly from the Yallahs Pipeline or by a combination of both. At the time of the visit the water
was only being supplied by the Yallahs pipeline which bypasses the reservoir.
Raw water entering the plant is first screened, pre-chlorinated and aerated. The screening stage
removes large debris and the chlorine and air during aerations removes odour and some
microorganism. In this tank the water hydraulically mixes with air and sunlight to kill
bacteria . . . The pre-chlorinated water is then sent to the Rapid mix Chamber, here the
appropriate dosage of alum is added to "coagulate" the particulate impurities. Mr John, whom
joined us on the tour, mentioned that the chambers have been used to dose Activated Carbon to
assist in dealing with the algal blooms that occur from time to time in the Mona Reservoir.
Flocculation follows rapid mixing or coagulation after which water undergoes sedimentation.
Sedimentation is the process by which gravity is used to remove suspended solids from the
water. The water is then led to the 6 filter beds where filtration takes place to remove particulate
matter. The filters are cleaned by a reverse flow of first air and then treated water.
Filter water is then disinfected with a further chlorine dose and flows to a reinforced concrete
reservoir. From the reservoir a 36" diameter pipe conveys water into the overall Kingston water
Distribution System. This supplies mainly East Kings House Gate and down Old Hope Road to
Stanton Terrace).
All through the water treatment process (raw water, effluent and plant tap) the water is tested to
make sure that the quality is just right. Some of the water samples that are collected are taken to
a laboratory where they are examined to make sure that the water meets the Interim Jamaica
Drinking Water Criteria and the World Health Organization standards. The tests are conducted to
quantify the residual chlorine, chloroform and minerals such as sodium. The acceptable chlorine
2

content as stated by Mr. Smith was 1.5mg/l but test have shown high readings of 2.4 mg/l. Health
and aesthetics are the main determinants for the safety of water. The National Water Commission
(NWC) uses the Interim Jamaican Criteria developed from WHO guidelines to set the standards
for the potability of water. Once the water has me the prescribed standards it is distributed for
both domestic and commercial usage.

Coagulation and Flocculation- Shannon McCarthy

Coagulation and flocculation is an intermediate process in water treatment processing.

After the water from the source has entered the treatment process, it is first screened for
impurities. However this is not sufficient to achieve standard clean water. Further measures have
to be taken in order to ensure that thorough cleaning on a more microscopic level occurs.
Flocculation and coagulation is a unit operation in which suspended solids in the water are
trapped and allowed to agglomerate. The NWC Mona treatment plant uses aluminium sulphate,
otherwise known as alum to achieve this.
All the impurities present in the water contains a negative charge. Therefore they repel
each other and as such form suspensions in the water. In order to remove these particles, they
must first be destabilised in order to counter repulsion. The coagulant used, alum, is added in a
powder form where it is dissolved in the water that is to be treated. The alum is of opposite
charge to the suspended particles therefore upon mixing will result in the particles being
neutralised. They in turn are now able to stick to each other, forming clumps of impurities.
After the addition of the alum, the water is then agitated causing the particles formed to
agglomerate and grow in size. This is known as flocculation in the water treatment industry. This
occurs as collisions between the particles increases due to mixing and as a result more particles
stick together. The larger particles are heavier and therefore settle out. It is upon this basis that
the particles are then separated through sedimentation.

Filtration- Brandeice Barrett (1201539)

The Mona Treatment plant as stated before is a direct rapid filter plant. There are two types of
filters used in large scale water treatment: rapid filters and slow filters. Rapid filters can either be
open tank (rapid gravity filters) or closed tank (pressure filters). The plant we visited employed
the rapid gravity filters. It was originally sand filter but has been recently upgraded to dual and
multi-media filter system. (The upgrade was done by French engineers in 2013).

In direct filtration, no clarification follows the coagulation phase. Direct filtration is designed to
filter water with an average turbidity of less than 25 NTU. The Dual and multi-media filters are
able to remove more suspended material per cubic foot of filter media than sand filters. Direct
filtration plants have also shown to have a lower capital cost. However, the drawback of this
process is that it cannot handle large variations in raw water turbidity.
The residue that remains in the filter post filtration is removed via Backwashing. The Mona
NWC utilizes 65 gallons of treated water to wash the filters. This is done by applying the water
to the top of the filter; it then flows downward. The water level above the filter bed is usually
kept at two-to-six feet. When the filtration has started after being backwashed, there will be little
head loss (height of water). In filters with a control valve installed on the filter effluent pipe, the
filter flow is restricted during this time. The control valve also has the important function of
preventing filter surges, which could disturb the media and force floc through the filter.
The filtered water then passes to the final unit operation which is called disinfection.

Summary

The water treatment plant by Mona constitutes of the five processes which can generally
be found in every water treatment facility. The Mona treatment plant stores water in a reservoir.
In order to make water suitable for domestic use, it must be free from all debris, harmful bacteria
and other micro-organisms.
The treatment plant is supplied by two sources, the Hope River and the Yallahs River,
which upon visit was the sole feed to the treatment facility. The water was treated by screening
for large debris after which smaller suspended particles would be pulled from the water being
treated through coagulation and flocculation. After this, the impurities present would be
separated from the water by sedimentation after which it would be filtered and disinfected to
ensure optimum purity (Mrwacom, 2015).
The plant is fully automated and as such human interference within the process is limited.
In order to ensure that the unit operations are operating as required, tests are conducted at
different points. In house tests are done as well as samples are sent to a lab for analysis.

References

Flocculation and Flocculation Filtration. Common Fundamentals and Unit Operations In

Thermal Desalination [Encyclopedia of Desalination and Water Resources] (2nd ed.).

Mazille, F., & Spuhlerz, D. Coagulation-Flocculation | SSWM. Retrieved from

http://www.sswm.info/content/coagulation-flocculation
Mrwacom. (2015). Mrwacom. Retrieved 1 October, 2015, from
http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter 18 Filtration.pdf

Nwcjamaica. (2015). Nwc Jamaica. Retrieved 3 October, 2015, from

http://www.nwcjamaica.com/FACILITIES.asp