Whether you work at the Carrollton Water Plant campus or simply pass by it in your travels around town, it’s hard to miss the twin 200-foot water towers that flank our Carrollton Water Plant. Thanks to funding from FEMA, our water system is more resilient than it has ever been. The proof? Systemwide water pressure drops below 20 PSI – and the precautionary boil water advisories that go with them – have plummeted compared to 2018 when the first tower came online.
The Water Hazard Mitigation Project was designed to reduce abrupt valve closures in water mains. Think about driving on a raised stretch of the I-10 at 60 MPH. If a metal wall suddenly slammed down in front of traffic, cars would pile up and burst through the highway’s retaining walls. Something similar happens to water pipes when a valve slams shut (because of a pump failure, for example), and it’s called the water hammer effect. The force of the water stopping abruptly can reverberate backward in a pipe-splitting shockwave. It can do a lot of damage in a short period of time.
The new water towers at the Carrollton Water Treatment Plant campus can hold about two million gallons of water each. In the event of a power loss or another emergency at the treatment plant, the towers can provide uninterrupted water pressure for approximately 40 minutes, depending on the size and type of outage. That’s precious time we can use to solve the problem or transfer to another power source. Because we built the towers directly into the water system, all of this happens automatically. No one has to flip a switch for them to start releasing water.
Although the water towers are the most visible part of the Water Hammer Hazard Mitigation Program, they represent just one of three phases.
All three phases of the Water Hammer Mitigation Program should be complete by the end of 2023.