The Acomb Landing project will provide water to the residents of York from early 2013 and replaces the aging current water treatment works which have provided drinking water to residents of York since 1846. The new treatment works will be able to treat more water, around 9 MGD, and will exceed current water quality standards, supplying improved drinking water.

Ozone will be used to remove pesticides from the water at the new works. The package includes ozone generators, control systems, measuring tools, dissolution mixing systems, static mixers and ozone destroyers. It will be delivered in January 2012.

Water treatment with ozone is effective and environmental safe when compared to treatment with chemicals such as chlorine. Oxidation by ozone kills microorganisms and cleans, treats, and disinfects water. It can also be used to control the taste, odor and color of water.

Water is pumped from the Red River to a reservoir and from the reservoir to a water treatment plant where it undergoes treatment. During the treatment process, ozone is added to the water twice in order to eliminate any unpleasant tastes or odors. Ozone is used widely around the US for taste and odor control. It is typically cheaper than alternative methods such as powdered activated carbon or UV/peroxide. It also does not require any addition of chemicals or disposal of spent carbon.

The ozone also inactivates any virus causing organisms that may be present. Ozone can kill a wide variety of micro organisms including one not treatable with chlorine. Once the treatment process is complete, the water is pumped to the distribution system, which handles up to 24 million gallons daily.

The topics covered in the conference included ozone generation, disinfection, drinking water purification, bromate formation, advanced oxidation among other topics.

The new treatment equipment is designed to cryptosporidium, a germ that causes severe diarrhea and can survive even in chlorinated water.

The total cost of the project is $5,978,000. The project doesn’t increase capacity of the system, which processes 6,000 gallons of water a minute and has 6.6 million gallons of storage. The system serves about 9,300 people through some 3,700 residential and 416 commercial connections. Construction will be completed by March 2013.

As noted in previous posts, there are concerns that ballast water may allow invasive species to move from one body of water to another via ships. Ozone has been proposed as one of the treatment technologies for this application because it is a well know and effective disinfecting agent.

The EPA program (www.epa.gov/etv) began in June 2011 with land based testing protocols. Sea based testing will follow. The protocol includes the organisms to be tested. For ozone based technologies brackish and non-brackish water must be tested.

The testing will take place at three testing centers: Great Ships Initiative (Superior, WI), maritime Environmental Resource Center (Chesapeake Bay, MD) and Golden Bear (San Francisco, CA).

The testing will include: biological treatment efficacy, O&M issues, cost factors, environmental acceptability and safety. the process must be able to treat 200 m3 in one hour.

You can register for the event at www.io3a.org. Spartan Environmental Technologies hopes to see you there.

The new process provides faster treatment time and requires less physical space. The footprint of the new plant will be only about 25 per cent of the space a conventional treatment plant would require.

By 2020, Lakeview will be a 100 per cent ozone, UF and UV treatment facility as additional phases of the project come on line. Many WTP’s are moving away from the use of chlorine towards alternatives such as ozone and UV as they try to simultaneously improve disinfection while minimizing disinfection by products.

The problem came from algae growing in Lake Waco, the city’s main water source. Officials said when the algae die after being deprived of sunlight, they release a chemical compound called Geosmin which can affect the smell and taste of the water.

The addition of the dissolved air flotation (DAF) pretreatment plant means more of the algae can be removed before the water reaches the water treatment plant. Ozone then removes the dissolved compound Geosmin via oxidation. Officials said the pretreatment plant has brought the cost of water treatment down between 20 and 30 percent, because fewer chemicals are now needed at the main treatment plant. While costs have gone down, capacity has gone up from approximately 60-million gallons to 90-million gallons a day.

Cryptosporidium and Milwaukee made national news 18 years ago this month when the parasite caused the largest epidemic of documented waterborne disease in U.S. history. About 403,000 people in the metropolitan area were sickened with watery diarrhea, and the illness was responsible for at least 69 deaths.

The city spent $89 million from 1994 to 1998 to upgrade the two water filtration plants and prevent another outbreak. The city is continuing to invest several million dollars a year – nearly $180 million since 1998 – to maintain its water treatment and distribution systems, and ensure the water is safe to drink.

Installing better water monitoring equipment was the first priority after the outbreak. Turbidity meters show whether particles of all kinds – parasites or soil – remain suspended in treated water. Turbidity, or cloudiness, of filtered water is measured constantly inside both plants and results are reported every 5 seconds.

The first construction project was to extend the Howard Ave. plant’s water intake pipe an additional 4,200 feet out into Lake Michigan. The longer pipe moved the intake away from the plume of contamination flowing out of the Milwaukee harbor and south along the shoreline. New filters of anthracite coal atop crushed sand, and new filter drains, were installed at both plants.

More importantly ozone gas now is dispersed into lake water as the first step of the treatment process at both plants. Ozone is capable of destroying Cryptosporidia and other disease-causing microbes. Typical doses of chlorine are not capable of killing the parasite.

This award is given to one operator in Nevada each year, honoring the dedication and expertise of water operators throughout the state of Nevada.

Kingsbury G.I.D. is the water supplier for the residents of the Stateline area, and is one of the most complex water treatment and distribution systems in Northern Nevada. The water is treated by an ozone disinfection process before being pumped over 1,500 feet vertically through a series of tanks and pumping stations to reach the customers’ homes on upper Kingsbury.

The award reflects the quality of service and commitment given by Eric and the rest of the KGID staff and crew to the residents of the Kingsbury area.