Question regarding Water Treatment plants

[Themightypierre 1]

I'm a newbie slowly getting to grips with the game and I think I'm doing ok, I'm enjoying the experimentation anyway.

 

Now my cities have grown to around the 30,000 mark I am getting 'dirty water' messages. My question is where do you put water treatment plants? Do they have to be connected to the pipe system somehow or is it enough to plonk them down anywhere?

[kristoferpetit 3]

I find that it doesn't matter where you put them they will work… as long as they are connected to the pipe system. I never really liked the maxis one as its too big and doesn't do much. Might pay to find one on here to download

[Turjan 1,048]

They have a mixed regional/tile-wide effect, which means that their effect is largest around the place where you put them. Best is to place them between your sources of water pollution (industry and agriculture) and your water pumps, so you keep your access to clean drinking water. And yes, they have to be connected to the pipe system.

[Themightypierre 1]

I find that it doesn't matter where you put them they will work… as long as they are connected to the pipe system. I never really liked the maxis one as its too big and doesn't do much. Might pay to find one on here to download

Could anyone recommend a good mod in this respect?

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Water treatment plants aren't bothered about placement. They have a radius of 48 tiles, so try and place them strategically in the more polluted areas, scattered amongst ID & IM industry. Here they'll have the greatest impact.
 
As for connecting to pipes, Page 173 in the Prima Guide states:
 
"Water pollution is easy, but expensive to fight. Place the required number of Water Treatment Plants in your city (they don’t need to be connected to the pipe system) and give them power."
 
It's quite an interesting one this, and I think it's somewhat of a grey area. Realistically you'd expect pipes to make a difference (how else can the treated water be distributed?). But from testing, I've found the Prima Guide to be correct, and pipes don't make a noticeable difference to the radius or reduction effect. Does anyone know any advantage of connecting to the grid, or what the theory is behind this?
 

Here are some images as proof of concept:
 

A heavily polluted large city tile, before placing any treatment plants.

The green square on the left represents some water pumps, outside of the polluted radius.
 
Test one: 8 treatment plants, unconnected, in an un-watered zone:

 
Test two: 8 treatment plants, identical placement, now connected to the network:

 
The end result:

 
Unconnected (left) vs. connected (right).

I think that's quite a conclusive result. On both occasions the coverage radius is identical.

 

On 05/03/2014 at 11:56 AM, Themightypierre said:

Could anyone recommend a good mod in this respect?

There's a few out there. I'd personally recommend this version.

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Interesting.  I always connect them for logic's sake.

[kristoferpetit 3]

This is the pump i use, quite happy with it.