If you are treating 21 MGD water in a surface water plant, how many gallons per minute does this correspond to?

To determine how many gallons per minute correspond to a treatment rate of 21 million gallons per day (MGD), you need to convert MGD into gallons per minute (GPM).

First, recognize that there are 1,440 minutes in a day (24 hours x 60 minutes). Therefore, to convert MGD to GPM, divide the daily flow by the number of minutes in a day:

21,000,000 gallons per day ÷ 1,440 minutes per day = 14,583.33 gallons per minute.

When rounded to the nearest whole number, this calculation results in approximately 14,583 GPM, which matches the indicated correct answer. This conversion is important in water treatment operations, as flow rates need to be accurately understood for process control and infrastructure design.