Agalteca has a population of 2,160 residents. A distribution tank is already in place, but another distribution tank is expected. Construction of an AguaClara water treatment plant started on September 30th, 2009. More details about the town of Agalteca and the construction of the plant there can be found here.
Agalteca is unique in being the first plant to be designed largely using the Automated Design Tool.
This is the first AguaClara design to use untapered baffles in the flocculator. The goal is to create a 6 mW/kg energy dissipation rate throughout the flocculator. There are 29 baffles in each of the first two channels to ensure that the water flows through the ports connecting channels, which are at the bottom, correctly. The last channel has 28 baffles because the inlet port is at the bottom and the inlet channel for the sedimentation tank is at the top. The baffles use polycarbonate sheets instead of cement which are easier to remove. This makes draining the system much easier.
The inlet channel was modified to have only one opening leading to the sedimentation tank instead of two. See the explanation for this under Sedimentation Tank. The concrete in the inlet channel will be rounded going into the pipe so that the transition of flow is smoother. The amount of rounding is yet to be determined.
The sedimentation tank design is significantly different from previous designs. The main problem that brought about the change is that too much sludge was settling out in the inlet manifolds at Cuatro Comunidades. There was originally a similar design for Agalteca, so it needed to be fixed. To see a list of ideas on how to fix this problem until the final design was chosen, click here. To see other potential changes that can be made if needed to correct this problem, click here.
The final design involves an inlet pipe down the center of the tank instead of two inlet manifolds under the slopes. The pipe will be a 6" diameter PVC pipe. The inlet manifolds will be filled in with concrete. The slopes will remain though so that flocs are directed toward the sludge drain.
One issue that has yet to be resolved is how to distribute the flow of water evenly throughout this pipe. This includes potentially tapering the pipe and determining the size and spacing of the orifices and their positioning in relation to the sludge drain orifices.
If possible, a floc blanket should be formed. The postitioning of the floc weir to accomplish this is yet to be determined. In order to more likely achieve a floc blanket, the orifices in the pipe will point downward, to re-elevate settled sludge along the bottom. If the floc blanket fails, the pipe can be rotated 180 degrees.