Metro Vancouver treats your drinking water in two stages. First it is treated at the source, at one of Metro Vancouver’s two water treatment facilities. It is given additional (secondary) treatment as it travels throughout the region. This ensures that your water remains high quality, even if you live far away from the original source.
Filtration and UV treatment at the Seymour Capilano Filtration Plant
The Seymour Capilano Filtration Plant is the largest drinking water filtration plant in Canada. Operating since 2009, it can treat up to 1.8 billion litres per day.
Water from both the Capilano and Seymour Reservoirs is treated at the Seymour Capilano Filtration Plant.
How does one plant treat water from two sources?
Underground tunnels transport water over 7 km from the Capilano Reservoir, so that water from both Seymour and Capilano can be treated at one facility.
The main drinking water treatment processes at the Seymour Capilano Filtration Plant are filtration and ultraviolet (UV) light. Filtration improves drinking water by removing particulates, organic matter, and micro-organisms. An added benefit of filtration is that less chlorine is required to maintain water quality in the distribution system. UV light inactivates any micro-organisms present in the source water.