The Louisville Water Company is a water company based in Louisville, Kentucky .
26-521: The Louisville Water Company has been in operation since 1860. First known as "The Water Works", the company served water to 512 customers. Water delivery began on 6 October 1860. In 1879, the Crescent Hill Reservoir, developed by Charles Hermany and with a capacity of 100 million gallon, opened to retain more mud from the water cleaning process. Starting in 1896, sanitary engineer George W. Fuller launched experiments in filtration on
52-401: A 30 million gallon per day mechanical filtration plant at Little Falls, New Jersey . The plant was a milestone in public health protection because it incorporated all of Fuller's findings from his research over the previous 10 years and it became the model for the design of subsequent drinking water filtration facilities. On June 19, 1908, Fuller was hired by John L. Leal to design and build
78-537: A chlorination system for the Jersey City, New Jersey water supply at Boonton Reservoir on the Rockaway River . Given an impossible deadline as a result of a New Jersey Chancery Court order, Fuller successfully completed the chlorination system in 99 days. John L. Leal developed the basic concept of applying chlorine in the form of a dilute solution of chloride of lime ( calcium hypochlorite ) at fractions of
104-596: A dozen professional associations during his career. Some of his most important contributions were made while a member of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the American Public Health Association (APHA). As part of APHA, he was a member of the early water bacteriology committees that developed standards for the isolation, enumeration and identification of bacteria in water. This early work led to
130-531: A lawsuit filed by Jersey City against the water company. The chlorination system that he designed and built was declared a success by the Special Master, William J. Magie , and was judged capable of supplying Jersey City with water that was "pure and wholesome." The success of the Boonton chlorination system was due, in no small part, to the engineering excellence of Fuller. Chlorine use exploded after
156-880: A member of the American Society of Civil Engineers on January 6, 1869. He was elected in November 1879 to the member of the board. He was elected vice president in 1891 and as president in 1904. He was the first president of the Engineers' and Architects' Club of Louisville and served for six terms. Charles Hermany's brother was the Pennsylvania German poet Edward Hermany . Charles married Sallie Adams on December 19, 1854. They had seven children, including Irene H., Emily H., Madeline and Hettie May. Hermany died on January 18, 1908, in Cincinnati . He
182-853: A park system for the Salmagundi Club is said to have inspired Frederick Law Olmsted 's work. Hermany was also involved in the design of the River Pumping Station for the Cincinnati Water Works. In 2009 the Louisville Water Company (LWC) celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Crescent Hill Filtration Plant. Their website notes, "the opening in 1909 culminated Chief Engineer Charles Hermany's quest for pure water. It marked 30 years of research that included building
208-887: A position at the City Engineer's office. In 1857, he joined the Louisville Water Company in Louisville, Kentucky as first assistant to the chief engineer. He assisted Theodore Scowden in designing the Louisville Water Works buildings. He designed the Crescent Hill Water Plant . Hermany became the chief engineer and superintendent of the Louisville Water Company on January 1, 1861. He worked in that role for more than 25 years and designed water systems for Bowling Green, Kentucky and Frankfort, Kentucky . His map of
234-604: A ppm. Fuller modeled his chloride of lime feed system on the aluminum sulfate feed system that he designed for the Little Falls Water Treatment Plant. The chlorination facility fed 0.2 to 0.35 ppm of chlorine to an average water flow of 40 million gallons per day from Boonton Reservoir. Fuller testified as an expert witness for the defendants, the Jersey City Water Supply Company, in both trials that resulted from
260-613: The National Register of Historic Places since 1971. In 1997, the company trademarked its drinking water as "Louisville pure tap". In December 2010, the Environmental Working Group published a report on the quality of tap water in major US cities, and revealed that the Louisville tap water may contain significant levels of hexavalent chromium (chromium-6). The spokesperson of the company denied
286-470: The Crescent Hill Reservoir and a landmark experiment to develop a purification process for drinking water." Hermany worked with George Warren Fuller to complete the project. The designs have even been said to have influenced Frederick Law Olmsted who visited in 1891. A University of Kentucky student compared Hermany's work with that of Marcus Agrippa 's in Imperial Rome. Hermany was elected as
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#1732791769899312-704: The Hygiene Institute of the University of Berlin . After returning from Berlin, Fuller started working at the Lawrence Experiment Station in Lawrence, Massachusetts while still under the tutelage of William T. Sedgwick. While at LES, he investigated the treatment of sewage using filtration systems. His most important work was the study of filtration for potable water treatment. His early investigations were designed to increase
338-511: The U.S. Fuller and his partner Rudolph Hering were responsible for the design of the earliest Imhoff tank sewage treatment facilities in the U.S., which were located in Chatham, New Jersey and Atlanta, Georgia. He wrote two books that defined the state-of-the-art of sewage treatment. At the time of his death, an activated sludge system that he designed was being constructed on Wards Island to handle sewage flows from New York City. Fuller
364-456: The allegations, stating their tap water was safe. In 2014, the old Pumping Station No1 was restored and opened to the public as the new WaterWorks Museum. In 2018, the company distributed 33.7 billion gallons of drinking water. The Louisville Water Company provides water to the more than 800,000 people in Louisville, Kentucky , as well as parts of Oldham and Bullitt counties . The Louisville Water Company also provides wholesale water to
390-656: The development of the first edition of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater which is now jointly published by APHA, AWWA and the Water Environment Federation and is in its 22nd edition. In AWWA he was primarily responsible for the creation of standards of practice which ultimately developed into the AWWA Standards Council which manages standards for chemicals, pipe, and treatment equipment used throughout
416-639: The filtration rate for slow sand filters so that water treatment facilities could be built on smaller land footprints and, thus, be constructed more economically. During the period 1895 to 1897, Fuller was hired by the City of Louisville, Kentucky to study water filtration processes for the purpose of purifying Ohio River water for human consumption. The focus of his investigations were on "mechanical filtration" treatment systems (also called rapid sand filtration ), which used filtration rates that were 60 times higher than those of slow sand filters . Aluminum sulfate
442-540: The first chlorination system that disinfected a U.S. drinking water supply. In addition, he performed groundbreaking engineering work on sewage treatment facilities in the U.S. He was President of both the American Water Works Association and the American Public Health Association , and he was recognized internationally as an expert civil and sanitary engineer. George W. Fuller was born in Franklin, Massachusetts in 1868. After his primary and secondary education, he
468-440: The outlying counties of Shelby , Spencer , and Nelson counties. Within the water-cleaning complex, 200 water quality tests are operated daily. This United States corporation or company article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Louisville -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Charles Hermany Charles Hermany (October 9, 1830 – January 18, 1908)
494-567: The positive ruling by Justice Magie and typhoid fever and other waterborne diseases were conquered as a direct result of Fuller's reliable engineering of the first chlorination system. The foundation of Fuller's expertise in sewage treatment was laid at the Lawrence Experiment Station in Massachusetts. He later went on to design and supervise the construction of some of the most important sewage treatment plants in
520-611: The purification of Ohio River water. From 1897 to 1899, Fuller investigated mechanical filtration using the addition of aluminum sulfate followed by a sedimentation step before the final filtration process. After completing the Cincinnati filtration report, Fuller opened a single person consulting practice in New York City. One of his first assignments was from the East Jersey Water Company to design
546-635: The site. The Water Company's Crescent Hill Treatment Plant, located in Crescent Hill , was opened on July 13, 1909, which enabled Louisvillians to get clean water. In 1914, the company started to use chlorine as a disinfectant. In 1917, a report from the US government sanitary service called the Louisville water "almost perfect". In 1957, the company added anthracite to the sand and gravel water-filtering mixture. The original Louisville Water Tower and pumping station have been preserved and are listed on
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#1732791769899572-521: Was a consultant to cities, water agencies and sewer authorities for 34 years. It is estimated that Fuller acted as a consultant to over 150 municipalities and agencies during his career. Besides the design and construction of the Little Falls Treatment Plant, Fuller worked for the cities of New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, MO, and many others. Fuller was married four times. Fuller belonged to over
598-594: Was accepted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the age of 16. He deferred his attendance at MIT for one year (beginning 1886) due to the death of his father. At MIT, he studied under William T. Sedgwick and completed his bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1890. Sedgwick was able to send Fuller to Berlin, Germany to study under the chief engineer for the Berlin waterworks, Carl Piefke. During his stay in Berlin, Fuller studied bacteriology at
624-415: Was added prior to filtration to form larger particles that would be amenable to filtration. The work in Louisville made it clear that except for the clearest upland water supplies, a sedimentation treatment step would have to be added prior to filtration to remove the bulk of the suspended particulate matter. Fuller learned from his Louisville work when he designed the investigations at Cincinnati, Ohio for
650-578: Was an engineer and architect. Charles Hermany was born on October 9, 1830, in Lynn Township, Pennsylvania to Salome (née Wannemacher) and Samuel Hermany. He attended local schools and two terms at Minerva Seminary in Easton, Pennsylvania . He attended college and then worked on his father's farm for three years. He studied mathematics and engineering while practicing land surveying in the field. In 1853, Hermany moved to Cleveland, Ohio and accepted
676-518: Was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville . George Warren Fuller George Warren Fuller (December 21, 1868 – June 15, 1934) was an American sanitary engineer who was also trained in bacteriology and chemistry. His career extended from 1890 to 1934 and he was responsible for important innovations in water and wastewater treatment . He designed and built the first modern water filtration plant, and he designed and built
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