Paragraph on public water supply in your area
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Public water supply refers to water withdrawn by public and private water suppliers and delivered to users. Public water suppliers provide water to domestic, commercial, and industrial users, to facilities generating thermoelectric power, for public use, and occasionally for mining and irrigation. The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code for this category is 4941. A public water supply is a public or private water system that provides water to at least 25 people or has a minimum of 15 service connections. Examples of public water-supply systems include those that serve cities and towns, military bases, apartment complexes, and large mobile home parks.
The water-use activities in the public water-supply category include water withdrawal from ground and surface water; instream conveyance to and from reservoirs and canals; consumptive use, as evaporation during open storage or conveyance; raw and finished water storage; purchases from other public water suppliers; treatment; and distribution to other public water suppliers and to various users (figure 3).
Small public water-supply systems have water from a few wells pumped to an elevated tank from which water flows by gravity through a distribution system to users. As the population served by the public water-supply system increases, or as local ground-water supplies prove inadequate to meet the needs of the population served, surface water is used, either in place of or in addition to, the wells. Treatment plants are used much more frequently when surface water is a source of supply. Increasing average daily demand (ADD) on the public water supply system necessitates the development of larger sources, storage facilities, and distribution systems until the system depicted in figure 3 begins to emerge. Large public water-supply systems can be complex and incorporate many reservoirs from which withdrawals are made from one reservoir (or from several independent reservoir systems), from wells, well fields, or even springs.
Consumptive use occurs primarily through evaporation from open reservoirs and canals as water flows through the system and is very significant in arid areas or areas with large open water bodies. Water treatment can range from a simple system of no treatment, simple chlorination, addition of corrosion control chemicals, to a more complex system that adds coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, and filtration. Water used in backwashing filters or other sanitary operations is either released into wastewater-collection systems or returned to the hydrologic system. After treatment, water usually is sent to finished water storage or directly into the distribution system.
A public water system is defined as a system that provides water for human consumption1 to 15 or more connections or regularly serves 25 or more people daily for at least 60 days out of the year.
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