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Water Treatment Superintendent's Office, (530) 275-7450

Chuck Robinson, Water Treatment Superintendent

Chuck is responsible for maintaining all operations at the city's water plant, including preparing regular reports to monitoring agencies. ( DHS. WQCB. EPA ) Other responsibilities include wholesale water acquisition, water quality, bacteria testing and priority pollutants testing. Maintaining and operating all tanks and control valves in the distribution system and running the Backflow Protection Program are other operational duties.

Chuck has served the Shasta Lake Community for 24 years and has held a variety of positions including: 3 years as a meter reader, 1 year as an Electric Department Groundman/Linetruck Operator, 2 years as a water distribution operator, 3 years as a water treatment operator, 12 years as the Sr. Water Treatment Plant Operator, 2 years as the Water Treatment Supervisor and currently is the Water Treatment Superintendent.

    The Fishermen Point Treatment Plant was completed in 1989 and serves the City's population of nearly 10,000. The plant feeds the water through a distribution system with approximately 3800 connections. The plants maximum output is approximately 5 million gallons per day (MGD).

    The source of raw (untreated) water feeding the plant comes from Shasta Lake through two intake ports located in Shasta Dam. These ports are at different depths on the dam to allow for selection of the cleanest (lowest turbidity) water. Four large pumps are used to push the water up hill to the plant site through a 16" line. The pumps can be selected in any order to deliver the required flow rate of the filters.

The plant site contains the following equipment:

    When demand for water lowers the level in the finished water storage tank to a preset point, it automatically causes the filters to come on line. The filters operate at flow levels set by the operator to keep up with demand.  Once the filters start, raw water is fed to the filters from the raw storage tank. As the water travels to the filters it is injected with chlorine for disinfecting and Polymer to aid in the filtering process.  As the water passes through the filters, impurities are removed from the water and trapped in the filter media. The clean water then flows to the clear well where it is pumped to the finished water tank to feed the demand.  As the level in the raw water tank drops, it causes the pumps at the base of the dam to come on and feed the plant with more water from the lake.

    Once the water reaches the plant, the line splits to feed the raw water storage tank and the filters. If the filters are not running, the water will feed the raw tank until the tank reaches the full level. Then the pumps are shut down automatically. This will happen only after the filters have produced enough water to meet demand and fill the finished water tank to the full mark. Then the filters will shut down until demand lowers the finished storage tank and causes the filters to start again repeating the whole process.

    Over a period of time the filters become loaded with removed particles and need to be cleaned. Water and air is pushed back up through the filters allowing the cleaning of the filter media. The backwash water leaves the filters through a channel at the top of the filters and is drained to the backwash basin. This process is done automatically or by operator control.

Click here for the 2009 Water Quality Consumer Confidence Report!