Ozone Treatment Begins at Collins Park Water Treatment Plant

The ozone treatment facilities for the City of Toledo Collins Park Water Treatment Plant began service on Thursday, June 24, and have been continuously treating the settled water with ozone since that date.

“Ozone treatment at the Collins Park Water Treatment Plant is another critically important step we have taken toward making it the most efficient and modernized water treatment plant in the nation. It is the most advanced technology available to continue our fight against toxic algal blooms,” Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said. “Algae blooms are a recurring scourge in Lake Erie and Toledo has adapted to deal with this issue. While we are successfully treating this problem on our end, it is no secret that the root cause of the problem is pollution from farms and other sources that run off into waterways, forming harmful algal blooms in our source water. Cities like Toledo have dramatically slashed the release of algae-feeding phosphorus into waterways, but we need farmers to do the same.”

The new ozone facilities have a 160 million gallon-per-day capacity. Ozone provides additional measures of protection for the pretreatment and mitigation of the effects of harmful algal blooms within Lake Erie to further protect the city’s drinking water supply. This process, in concert with recently completed phases of the filter improvements projects, improves our water quality and provides another treatment barrier to harmful algal blooms. The work includes upgrades to potassium permanganate and powder activated carbon feed systems at the city’s low service pump station, and the addition of powder activated carbon storage and feed systems, new ozonation facilities, and filter upgrades at the Collins Park Water Treatment Plant.

Project completion dates:

March 2020: Basins 7 and 8, filters 31 - 40 (granular activated carbon ready to act as biologically active filters once ozone is online)
March 2021: Refurbishment Basins 5 and 6 and rebuild of filters 21 - 30 (granular activated carbon ready to act as biologically active filters once ozone online)
June 2021: Ozonation facilities regular use begins.
March 2022: Refurbishment Basins 3 and 4, rebuild of filters 11 - 20
March 2023: Refurbishment Basins 1 and 2, rebuild of filters 1 - 10

There is availability for the media to tour the ozone facilities at 2 p.m. today. Space is limited. Interested journalists should email ignazio.messina@toledo.oh.gov.

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