Did you know that 1/32 inch of organic scale can reduce heat transfer in commercial cooling systems by 33% and increase energy costs by 10%? Moreover, did you know that replacing chiller plants can cost up to $500 per ton of cooling capacity? The always rising costs of energy and water should be an incentive to clean and keep clean your cooling system. Today, that is easy to do with Clearitas 201. Clearitas 201 is specifically engineered to breakdown and remove scale within the cooling system. Removing scale and contaminant buildup optimizes heat transfer, restores performance and returns the system to its designed specifications. It also extends the service life of the system, prevents microbiological induced corrosion and aids in controlling bacterial growth. Find out more about treating your cooling tower with Clearitas HERE.
March 11-17th is National Ground Water Awareness Week sponsored by the National Ground Water Association. The purpose of this observance is to acknowledge how essential ground water is to our well-being and to stress the importance of protecting ground water sources from contamination.
Ground water contamination is most often the result of human activities, such as incorrect use of fertilizers and pesticides; poorly sited, constructed or maintained septic systems; improper disposal or storage of wastes; and chemical spills at industrial sites.
Seventy-eight percent of public water systems in the U.S. rely on ground water sources for drinking water. This translates to nearly 90 million people. To protect the quality of ground water, the U.S. EPA has developed the Ground Water Rule which provides increased protection from microbial pathogens. The EPA has also established maximum concentration levels for several water pollutants.
Another 15 million households in the U.S. have private water wells, which are not subject to EPA regulations. Private well owners are responsible for the integrity of their ground water. The National Ground Water Association and WellOwner.org provide many resources for well owners and helpful information for maintaining clean ground water.
The water treatment plant for the City of Bellefontaine, Ohio serves 5,300 customers with an average water production of 2.0 MGD. The facility is equipped with three air stripping towers and four high pressure filters.
A few years back, the Bellefontaine WTP began experiencing some filter media issues, which included sand compaction and cementing of the media layers. They also had packing issues in their air stripping towers. The high iron content of the city’s water was fouling the air stripper media and causing them to clump together.
Not having any prior insight of chemical cleaning, the WTP resorted to hiring a company to come on sight and remove all the filter media and air stripper packing in each unit and replace with new product in each. According to Tim Newland, Bellefontaine’s WTP Supervisor, “It was incredibly expensive, as you can probably imagine.”
In need of a more cost-effective treatment option, Newland found Blue Earth Products (then called Floran Technologies), and decided to give chemical cleaning a chance. To his surprise it was much cheaper and less time consuming, and the cleaning procedure had effectively restored the filters and air stripping towers to previous levels of performance. After going through this process and seeing the dramatic results, the Bellefontaine WTP entered into a three-year contract to annually clean all of its air stripping towers and pressure filters.
The chemical cleaning procedure has proven to be much easier for Newland and his team as they try to maintain daily operations and decrease the amount of downtime. They have since renewed their contract with Blue Earth Products and continue to clean their pressure filters and air stripping towers.
Overall, the Bellefontaine WTP saved an average of $25,000 per air stripping tower. Newland now believes that if any water operators have a media or packing issue, that they should get a second opinion before making the costly move to replace filter or air stripper media. “I highly recommend seeing if the team of experts from Blue Earth Products can assist you. Like myself, you might find the time spent is money saved,” added Newland.
Bellefontaine’s air stripper media prior to cleaning
Bellefontaine’s air stripper media after in-place chemical cleaning
Filtration is one of the most important steps in water treatment today. Proper care and maintenance is key to meeting new compliance regulations and extending the life and performance of your filtration system. Check out Bob Cashion’s article, Using Media Inspection & Maintenance for Filtration Optimization on Water Online. Cashion’s article provides insight to the overall importance of the filtration process and how the process has changed with the current importance being placed on TOC reduction and disinfection byproduct (DBP) regulations. Mechanical applications of the filtration process for both gravity and pressure filters are examined to provide a better understanding of the importance of operations and maintenance practices for optimized performance of filtration systems. Proper care of filtration media is discussed in depth to show the contamination issues that occur and the effects biofilm growth can have on overall water quality. A cost analysis chart shows the difference in costs between media cleaning practices verses complete media change-out and how it can become a maintenance expense rather than capital improvements. Furthermore, practical solutions utilizing Blue Earth Products’ chemical cleaning solutions are discussed in detail and completed case studies from three various filtration facilities are used to exemplify the cost savings of media cleaning over media change-out.
About Bob Cashion
Robert (Bob) K. Cashion is a Certified Water Technologist, he holds class IV Water & Wastewater operators licenses in several states and has been providing water & wastewater related training for over 35 years, he is the National Director of Training & Field Services for Blue Earth Products, and is involved extensively in operations and maintenance issues of filtration systems and water quality assessment projects. He is an active member in the AWWA and NRWA and State associations. He has a BS degree in Environmental Health & Technology from Missouri Southern State University and EIT graduate at the Water & Wastewater Technical College, Neosho, MO.
About Water Online
For over 16 years, Water Online has served the water, wastewater and stormwater industries by providing a comprehensive platform where buyers and suppliers can connect, interact and share information.
Blue Earth Products today announced a strategic business partnership with Azure Water Services, a diversified manufacturer and supplier of environmentally-responsible products and services used in industrial, commercial and municipal water applications. Recognized as a leader in eco-friendly water treatment programs, Azure Water Services provides solutions to performance, costs and environmental problems to its broad customer base primarily in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. They service a variety of industries including commercial and industrial buildings, manufacturing facilities, hospitals and medical centers, food and beverage facilities, government and military properties and power generation stations. By partnering with Blue Earth Products, Azure Water Services will offer Blue Earth Products’ suite of proprietary, NSF 60 certified products for advanced cleaning and water infrastructure maintenance.
According to Dane Madsen, CEO of Blue Earth Products, “We are pleased to join forces with a leader in green water treatment solutions. Their water industry expertise combined with a commitment to a high-level of service to its extensive customer base will help establish Blue Earth Products in the water treatment industry.”
“It’s our mission to provide our customers with the most advanced, innovative and eco-friendly commercial and industrial water treatment products. Blue Earth Products’ suite of products align with our environmentally responsible approach, and we are excited to expand our offerings to include their powerful and economical solutions to scale and biofilm issues, as well as their water infrastructure maintenance solutions,” stated Ken Soeder, President of Jamestown Technologies.
If you would like more information about Blue Earth Products, please call 1.800.256.4489 or email info@BlueEarthLabs.com. For information on Azure Water Services, please contact 203.932.3655 or email info@Azure.com.
About Azure Water Services
There are three primary divisions within the Azure group, Jamestown Technologies, Water Solutions and Redux Technology, bringing over 75 years of combined experience in critical water treatment areas such as cooling and boiler water treatments, groundwater remediation programs, and potable water operations. Azure’s experienced team of technical advisors provide customers with a wide variety of analytical, consulting, designing and engineering services to ensure consistent results and optimized product usage and equipment performance.
About Blue Earth Products
Blue Earth Products, a chemical research and development company, develops advanced cleaning and maintenance solutions to assist commercial facilities in providing safe, clean water. The Company’s proprietary, NSF 60 certified products are specifically engineered to extend the operational life and efficiency of any water infrastructure by removing organic and inorganic contaminants both online and off-line. Founded in 2010, Blue Earth Products combines chemistry with commitment, innovation and expertise to deliver simple, cost-effective water infrastructure solutions to customers across the globe. Visit BlueEarthLabs.com for more information.
Attending ACE 2012?
Come visit us at the New Product Technology Showcase featuring our Media Master® product.
Take our Filter Media Challenge!
Bring one quart of your dirtiest filter media, and we will clean it. To sign up for the challenge, email info@blueearthlabs.com.
Product demo times:
Sunday, June 10 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Monday, June 11 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Tuesday, June 12 3:00 – 4:30 pm
Media Master® and Media Master® RR are granular formulations developed specifically for in-place filter media rehabilitation. These products are designed for removal of organic and inorganic deposits on anthracite, sand, activated carbon and other types of granular media. Treatment with Media Master and Media Master RR is a fast, convenient and economical alternative to media replacement. Filter cleaning improves performance and extends media lifetime.
In case you haven’t heard, cooling towers have been blamed for the worst outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease in Scottish history. This news is a harsh reminder that industrial cooling towers often harbor harmful waterborne bacteria. Here’s the link to the news: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/legionnaires-cases-at-74-amid-edinburgh-outbreak-7831703.html
Our belief is that being proactive with legionella prevention is the best, most cost-effective strategy. Clearitas 401 from Blue Earth Products is a proprietary form of oxidized chlorine that attacks and eliminates the organic and inorganic precipitates that provide Legionella with a surface for attachment and growth. Used in conjunction with a primary disinfectant, Clearitas effectively removes and prevents the medium in which Legionella thrives.
For more information on our legionella prevention, click here. Don’t make the same mistake if you have not implemented a plan to prevent legionella!
To further demonstrate our commitment to legionella prevention and control, we announced that our commercial team members, Ken Juillet & Bob Cashion, completed comprehensive training on developing legionella HACCP water plans. See the new announcement below: BLUE EARTH PRODUCTS EXPANDS CAPABILITY TO PREVENT LEGIONELLA IN BUILDING WATER SYSTEMS
Team Completes Comprehensive Training Course for Developing Legionella HACCP Water Plans Las Vegas, NV– Blue Earth Products, a chemical research and development company, today announced that its commercial team members, Ken Juillet, National Director of Commercial Sales and Bob Cashion, National Director of Training and Field Services, completed Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) training for developing water management plans to prevent Legionella. HACCP is the most widely used risk management process for preventing environmental-source disease, such as Legionella, from harming people in building water systems.
Due to the imminent adoption of ASHRAE Standard 188P that sets the stage for human-occupied buildings to develop a water safety plan to prevent and remediate Legionella associated with building water systems, Blue Earth Products has taken a proactive role to help its clients to comply with the Standard. With Blue Earth Products’ training, the commercial team will work with building managers to identify the uses of potable and utility water, create diagrams of their water systems, identify control points and critical control points and establish monitoring procedures and corrective actions if an outbreak occurs.
Juillet and Cashion completed an eight-hour training program on “Preparing to Develop a Legionella HACCP Water Plan,” developed and delivered by globally recognized HC Info founder and principal, Matt Freije. This achievement demonstrates Blue Earth Products’ commitment to helping owners and managers of commercial, industrial and institutional buildings remediate and prevent Legionella outbreaks in their water distribution systems. According to Dane Madsen, CEO of Blue Earth Products, “For anyone who is a building manager, the safety of your tenants should be your top concern and recognizing the role of a building’s water system in their health and safety is highly critical. It is our belief that prevention of Legionella and other waterborne bacteria is the best course of action and a necessity for anyone responsible for human lives in commercial buildings. Our HACCP-trained professionals can help our customers develop their own HACCP plan to assess their risk, and, if necessary, eradicate Legionella and prevent future outbreaks. With people at risk, prevention is the only common sense approach.”
Blue Earth Products’ NSF 60, proprietary product, Clearitas, when used in conjunction with a primary disinfectant, has proven to effectively control and prevent Legionella by removing scale that provides harborage for growth of legionella colonies in numerous commercial customers including hospitals, healthcare facilities and industrial cooling towers throughout the U.S. Use of Clearitas as part of a comprehensive Legionella prevention plan leads to lower bacterial counts, organic and inorganic deposit removal and improved disinfectant effectiveness. Clearitas has the lowest cost of installation when compared to other remediation and prevention technology.
If you would like more information about Blue Earth Products or its Legionella HACCP water plan development, please call 1.800.256.4489 or email info@BlueEarthLabs.com.
Join us at the AWWA Annual Conference in Washington D.C., June 21-26. Find us at booth 2825 to discuss how we can help improve your system and save you money.
