Evaluation intervening factors in the performance of water treatment plants

ABSTRACT The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of seasonality, possible hydraulic overload, size, cost, and age of the station in the performance of conventional water treatment stations based on reliability analysis as an evaluation tool. For this purpose, operational data of the effluent from 20 stations operated by the same provider for the 2009–2014 period were used. Statistical analyses showed that the performance was increased in the dry season compared to the rainy one and in the small units evaluated. In the same scenario, almost all the stations submitted to hydraulic overload exhibit inferior performance. The determination of turbidity range required at the exit of the station, through the reliability analysis, proved to be an important management tool, allowing to hierarchize improvement actions in the systems. In addition, there was no correlation between the level of reliability and the treatment cost and the age of the station.