Department Information
The Water and Wastewater Department is responsible for the overall management and supervision of water and wastewater operations throughout the city. This includes engineering and design of water and wastewater facilities, and supervising and inspecting construction projects.

Additional Responsibilities
The department also is responsible for the maintenance and operation of all the equipment and facilities at the 10 water supply wells, the groundwater treatment plant, six booster pumping stations, and two sewer pumping stations.

Water Treatment
In addition, the department is responsible for the new surface water treatment facility that operates with a capacity of three million gallons per day.

The stored water is treated at the plant to bring the quality up to state Public Health Department standards. The water treatment process includes aeration to reduce acidity, chlorination, lime addition, iron sequestering, and fluoridation.

Water Distribution
The water distribution system provides water services to 33,000 customers including 26,463 residents. More than 1.3 billion gallons of water is pumped through 91 miles of pipe annually to serve 7,500 water service connections. In addition, the city services 1,300 commercial and industrial accounts.

Sewage
More than 2.2 billion gallons of sewage is transported annually through the city's 73 miles of sewer distribution lines. The sanitary sewer system operates on a gravity system. With the help of two primary pumping stations, sewage which originates from the city flows through the New Castle County system and is delivered to the Wilmington Regional Wastewater Treatment facility.