Environmental issue I'd like to solve

[Chuck]

Gravity alone isn't enough to provide the operating pressures that drive the municipal water system. A better way of saving energy would be to replace older sections of pipe to reduce friction loss, and minimize leaky watermains.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

Gravity alone isn't enough to provide the operating pressures that drive the municipal water system. A better way of saving energy would be to replace older sections of pipe to reduce friction loss, and minimize leaky watermains.

our water is gravity fed once it leaves the reservoirs, isn't it?


the water is pumped up to reservoirs at a higher location in the city from the filtration plant. from there it uses gravity to get to our homes. one of the big issues in the 2003 blackout was that the reservoirs would dry up because there was no power to pump water up to them but my water pressure was still the same during the blackout. maybe in some locations like high rises or certain districts gravity alone isn't enough?

 

[Chuck]

Gravity is the sole driving force behind our sanitary and storm systems, however Toronto is ultimately 100% dependant on an external source of power to operate our water distribution system. You can't raise water to a reservoir from Lake Ontario without supplying power, and that obstacle can never be overcome.

In any case, reservoirs and water towers are only tapped into when demand oustrips the supply of freshly treated water from water treatment plants.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

Gravity is the sole driving force behind our sanitary and storm systems, however Toronto is ultimately 100% dependant on an external source of power to operate our water distribution system. You can't raise water to a reservoir from Lake Ontario without supplying power, and that obstacle can never be overcome.

In any case, reservoirs and water towers are only tapped into when demand oustrips the supply of freshly treated water from water treatment plants.

but that's exactly what i said. water is pumped up the the reservior using electricity.

 

[Chuck]

the water is pumped up to reservoirs at a higher location in the city from the filtration plant. from there it uses gravity to get to our homes. one of the big issues in the 2003 blackout was that the reservoirs would dry up because there was no power to pump water up to them but my water pressure was still the same during the blackout. maybe in some locations like high rises or certain districts gravity alone isn't enough?

That's more what I was responding to. I believe that even after leaving a reservoir, gravity does not play a role in distributing water, because as I said before, water towers only come into play when demand outstrips supply. All pressure is provided by pumps in the case of Toronto. Remember that it is pressure that drives the flow of water, and while gravity can certainly add some pressure, it doesn't provide anywhere near all of it. Due to topography, Toronto's pipes flow uphill for the most part.

The reason why the water still worked for homes during the blackout was that pumping stations were the first utilities to be brought back online. The pressure supplied by pumping stations is sufficient for houses and lowrises. Apartment buildings did not have water because they have their own pumps for supplying water to upper floors, and these won't work when the building does not have power.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

That's more what I was responding to. I believe that even after leaving a reservoir, gravity does not play a role in distributing water, because as I said before, water towers only come into play when demand outstrips supply. All pressure is provided by pumps in the case of Toronto. Remember that it is pressure that drives the flow of water, and while gravity can certainly add some pressure, it doesn't provide anywhere near all of it. Due to topography, Toronto's pipes flow uphill for the most part.

The reason why the water still worked for homes during the blackout was that pumping stations were the first utilities to be brought back online. The pressure supplied by pumping stations is sufficient for houses and lowrises. Apartment buildings did not have water because they have their own pumps for supplying water to upper floors, and these won't work when the building does not have power.

in my area, i did not loose any pressure during the blackout. i live south of the 401 and my water probably comes from a reservior located at around steeles ave. there is enough drop in elevation to supply water at normal pressure for a 1 storey house. i'm pretty sure.


i'm pretty sure the pumping stations weren't brought back online. one of the main fears was that if the power stayed out any longer, the reservoirs would have dried up and the battey backup for the telephone system would have been all used up.

 

[Chuck]

i live south of the 401 and my water probably comes from a reservior located at around steeles ave

Yes and no. The city's reservoirs provide storage capacity that can be transferred throughout the city as required. But as water flows from lower pressure districts (in the south) to higher pressure districts (in the north) it's more likely that the water you received came from a reservoir south of you.

Also remember that water will always, 100% of the time, flow through either a pumping station or significantly less often one of the city's four water towers before it gets to your house. Toronto did not run out of water in the blackout because of a combination of there being enough stored water, and the critical number of pumping stations remained in operation either through backup power, or early restoration of power.

Regardless of how many reservoirs exist, or how full they may be, water will not flow unless a critical number of pumping statoins are in operation.