Process for removing hardness and total organic carbon from drinking water

A process for treating drinking water containing hardness and total organic carbon where the concentration of the total organic carbon is greater than 3 mg/L, the process comprising:

• pumping the drinking water into the bottom of an upflow reactor containing sand or calcium carbonate;
• pumping the drinking water upwardly through the reactor and fluidizing the sand or calcium carbonate;
• reducing the hardness in the drinking water by:
• a. injecting a hardness reducing reagent into the reactor and mixing the hardness reducing reagent with the drinking water passing upwardly through the reactor;
• b. wherein the hardness reducing reagent increases the pH of the drinking water moving upwardly through the reactor;
• c. precipitating hardness compounds from the drinking water as the drinking water moves upwardly through the reactor and through the fluidized sand or calcium carbonate;
• d. attaching the precipitated hardness compounds to the sand or calcium carbonate to form pellets in the reactor;
• e. from time-to-time, removing at least some of the pellets from the reactor;
• removing constituents of the total organic carbon from the drinking water by:
• a. mixing a coagulant with the drinking water at a point upstream of the reactor;
• b. as the drinking water moves upwardly through the fluidized sand or calcium carbonate, coagulation occurs and as a result, the constituents of the total organic carbon, including both soluble and insoluble species, are attracted and agglomerate into particles that form floc;
• directing the drinking water from the reactor;
• when the drinking water exits the reactor, subjecting the drinking water to a filtration process that removes the floc containing the constituents of the total organic carbon;
• and
• wherein the drinking water also contains iron and manganese and the process reduces both iron and manganese through coagulation before the drinking water enters the reactor and further removes iron and manganese through precipitation as the drinking water moves upwardly through the reactor and by a process where the iron and manganese precipitants attach to the pellets.