Enquirer: Power to Cincinnati water plant failed
UC engineers explain significance of shutdown
The Cincinnati Enquirer turned to two University of Cincinnati engineering professors to explain the significance of the city's main water treatment plant shutting down briefly in May, forcing the city to rely on water from a neighboring county.
The outage did not lead to any disruptions in service to its 1.1 million customers, the Enquirer said.
Steven Buchberger
UC College of Engineering and Applied Science professor Dionysios Dionysiou told the Enquirer it's important the public knows about outages, but he emphasized utilities may have procedures about how and when to inform the public.
Dionysiou is an international expert in water treatment who was recognized by Saudi Arabia this year with the prestigious Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water.
Dionysiou told the Enquirer that the Cincinnati water system is considered one of the best in the world.
Steven Buchberger, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science, told the Enquirer that the treatment plant's backups are important to provide redundancies during an emergency like the one in May.
"Like any piece of equipment, pumping stations can experience mechanical breakdowns, routine maintenance or power outages," Buchberger told The Enquirer. "Municipal water distribution systems are usually designed with plenty of redundancy so that if part of the system goes offline, service can be supplied and maintained by another part of the system."
UC College of Engineering and Applied Science professor Dionysios Dionysiou is an internationally recognized expert in water treatment. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand
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