Experience With Anthracite‐Sand Filters

Abstract

General Electric Company operates eight large filter plants for the Atomic Energy Commission at the Hanford, Washington, facility. This article discusses improved water treatment methods that have resulted in capital and operating savings and in the production of better water quality. Results of laboratory, pilot plant, and full‐scale plant tests with a variety of filter types over a period of 16 years show that filters made of anthracite and sand together are superior to filters made of either material alone. The effect of chemical treatment on water quality and head loss is greater than that of filter media composition or any other plant variable. A discussion follows the article by Thomas R. Camp, of Camp, Dresser, & McKee, who thoroughly endorses the conclusions of the study that the use of anthracite and sand together permits much higher filter rates than with either material alone. He provides a comparison of the use of anthracite and sand at the Billerica, Massachusetts, filter plant, and the use of sand with a Wheeler gravel bottom at the Cambridge, Massachusetts filter plant.