Treatment Plant Tour

From Lake Ontario to you . . .

The Shoremont Water Treatment Facility cleans and purifies lake water for your use. How do we do it? Join us for a tour of the treatment plant and find out!

A large intake pipe goes 1½ miles out into Lake Ontario to draw water into the Shoremont Plant. Divers inspect the pipe regularly to make sure nothing blocks the water flow.
 

At the plant, the water goes through 12 foot deep flash mixers where alum and polymer are added to it. 
 
 

 
These clumping agents make dirt and bacteria in the water stick together to form lumps of material called floc. 
 
 

The floc sinks to the bottom of the treatment plant’s large clarifier pools. 

Remaining dirt particles are filtered out of the water by passing it through coal, sand, and gravel filters. 
 

Chlorine is added to kill any germs that remain and make sure the water stays pure on the way to your house.
 

Before the clean, pure water is pumped to your house, fluoride is added to it to help keep your teeth healthy and cavity-free. 

MCWA stores water in huge tanks all over our service area to make sure there is always enough water at peak demand times (times when everyone is using water at once!). A total of 130 million gallons is stored. Click here to see how a water storage tank is constructed.
 
 

Technicians test the water regularly to make sure it is always clean and pure when it gets to you for washing, cooking, and drinking. 
 

Treatment process diagram.
 

To schedule a group tour of the 
Shoremont Water Treatment Plant call: 
MCWA General Offices
475 Norris Drive
(585) 442-2000
 

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The MCWA treatment plant produces 60 million gallons of drinking water each day. That is enough for each county resident to have 600 glasses of water a day!

Bringing you our most precious resource!