One of the important goals of water treatment is to remove viruses. In history, there have been horrible viral outbreaks that were transmitted through water. One happened in 2016 in India. While the exact source was never determined, it was believed water from a hotel’s well was the source. More than 220 cases of hepatitis A were linked to the hotel and that the patients had all had ice or water or foods that were kept on ice from that specific hotel.

This leads to questions. Does wastewater treatment effectively remove viruses from public drinking water? One specific worry involves COVID-19. Does water treatment kill coronaviruses and other dangerous viruses like hepatitis and norovirus? Rest assured, water treatment regulations take viruses into consideration. Here’s what you need to know.

Protections Set by The Safe Drinking Water Act

The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 established stringent guidelines to help protect drinking water throughout the U.S. By definition, any water system that provides drinking water for 25 or more or that has 15 connections and provides that water for at least two months per year are considered public water systems. There are more than 150,000 public water systems in the U.S. All of them must meet the EPA’s national standards.

Microbial sources are part of the contaminants that water treatment plants must treat and test for. If the contaminant levels are high, boil water orders or other warnings must go out to people on that water system. The list of microbial contaminants is long, but it includes these common viruses:

• Adenoviruses, such as pink eye or an upper respiratory infection like bronchitis
• Calciviruses, such as norovirus
• Enterovirus, such as coxsackievirus and poliovirus
• Hepatitis A

Information regarding COVID-19 is still coming in, but at this point, the CDC believes that coronaviruses are not transmitted through the water. WHO has yet to find any trace of COVID-19 in drinking water supplies before or after treatments. While COVID-19 has been found in fecal matter, the water treatment measures like filtration and disinfection kill that virus just as it successfully kills other viruses. WHO states that any water treatment plan with “conventional, centralized water treatment methods which use filtration and disinfection” are enough to kill coronaviruses. It’s not something people need to worry about as U.S. wastewater treatment plants use filtration and disinfection.

What Does This Mean For a Water Treatment Plant?

Every step a water treatment plant takes to rid wastewater of other viruses is taking care of the less common coronaviruses like COVID-19, MERS, and SARS. If you look at the steps that most water treatments plant use, there are different stages starting with the moment the wastewater arrives until it returns to a body of water or public water supply. Think of a typical water pitcher system like Brita. Water flows into a reservoir where it slowly trickles through activated charcoal filters to remove odors, bacteria, and some other contaminants. That’s similar to the filtration process in a water treatment plant.

The same happens in a water treatment system. Wastewater comes into the plant where screens, clarification, and filtration equipment work together to clean the water. Filters or filtration materials remove other contaminants in one of two ways. One way is to place the activated carbon filters for post-filtration cleaning after the rapid mix, flocculation/sedimentation, and filtration steps before water moves on. The other way takes place in a filtration tank where the charcoal sits in the bottom of a tank and filters out contaminants and odors after rapid mix and flocculation/sedimentation.

While many water treatment systems use charcoal or activated charcoal, some may use sand, coconut fibers, or other materials to capture bacteria, viruses, chemicals, and parasites. This is the first of two important steps. The second step involves the addition of a chemical disinfectant like chlorine that kills any remaining bacteria, parasites, and viruses.

The two most common disinfectants used by a water treatment plant are chloramine or chlorine. Chloramines are a mix of ammonia and chlorine and have been used since the 1920s. Water treatment plants specifically use monochloramine, which kills germs without causing eye, respiratory, or skin irritation. Monochloramine is safe to consume.

Chlorine is also a top choice of water treatment plants. It was first used in a New Jersey water treatment plant in 1908. It’s a bleach that can be harmful in high doses, but the amount that remains after processing wastewater is minimal and considered safe to consume. UV and sunlight help remove the excess chemicals used in the water disinfection step.

Avoid Frequent Repairs or Equipment Failures Through Plant Upgrades

One issue water treatment plants have seen with COVID-19 is the increased use of paper supplies other than toilet paper. With toilet paper shortages, people started using tissues, paper towels, baby wipes, and napkins in place. Public awareness campaigns are essential to keeping people from flushing these items into their septic systems or sewer lines. These items can cause blocked lines and put more strain on equipment. If you’re experiencing problems and need repairs, Lakeside Equipment does supply parts for necessary repairs.

Water treatment regulations change regularly as the EPA reviews the current list of contaminants every five years. To ensure your system is removing viruses and other contaminants, you must make sure your system meets the current regulations. When changes are made, we can help you go over your current system and see if any improvements are needed. If your old system needs a complete update, we have engineers available to design new plans that fit your space and budget.

Upgraded equipment helps a water treatment plant process wastewater effectively and efficiently. Replacing outdated equipment may cost some money upfront, but it also saves money in terms of electricity costs and repairs in the long run. It ensures you meet the current EPA regulations. Let Lakeside Equipment help you plan upgrades that make sense for your water treatment plant and meet your budget.

You probably understand the basic differences between wastewater and stormwater. It can be harder to understand the differences in how they are handled within a town or city setting. Stormwater may eventually make its way to a water treatment plant, but it’s not through the sewer as you’d imagine. Wastewater is handled differently. It is not meant to get into bodies of water without first being treated.

What is Wastewater?

Wastewater is the liquid that comes from showers, washing machines, sinks, toilets, bathtubs, dishwashers, and other items that handle dirty water. That water travels through pipes into a sewer or septic tank. If it goes into a septic tank, an effluent filter keeps solids from getting into the pipes and creating blockages in the pipes leading to the leach field. The water that goes to the leach field filters naturally through the soil, sand, and bedroom before going into underground water sources. The remaining sludge and solids stay in the tank where it must be pumped out every three to five years, depending on the number of residents, and trucked to a plant.

For homes and businesses within a water district that has sewer lines, the water travels through the sewer lines to the sewer system. There it travels to that district’s water treatment plant.

It doesn’t matter if that wastewater gets there through sewer lines or is trucked in by companies that drain business and residential septic tanks. That wastewater goes directly to the wastewater treatment plant to be cleaned before it’s released to a body of water or into storage tanks.

What is Stormwater?

Stormwater is rain, snowmelt, and ice melt that occurs after a storm or on a warmer day in the winter or spring. In a rural or wooded area, that water is typically absorbed back into the ground. In a city, you have pavement and concrete that prevent the water from reaching the soil. It has to go somewhere, so storm drains, ditches, and pipes help handle the water.

People see storm drains in a city and assume it all winds up in a sewer. The reality is that there are different systems in place to handle wastewater and stormwater. After a storm or sudden snow/ice melt, the water you see flooding into a storm drain goes into a drainage system that returns that untreated water to rivers, lakes, streams, and ponds.

One of the problems with untreated water going into a body of water is that it hasn’t been cleaned. That water can pick up contaminants like road salt, vehicle fluids, trash, and agricultural fertilizers and pesticides and end up in the water. This triggers an adverse reaction by causing things like algae blooms to take over and pollute a water source. People should take precautions to prevent these contaminants from getting into storm drains or ditches.

There is that chance that the river, lake, pond, or another body of water feeds into a water treatment plant. For example, if your city draws water from the nearby lake to be used as water in public businesses and homes within the water district, the stormwater that travels into that lake would eventually reach the water treatment plant. There, it would be cleaned, treated, and eventually make its way through pipes to homes and businesses.

What Happens at the Water Treatment Plant?

Collection and pumping are the first stages of a water treatment plan. Sewage is collected and cleared of large objects through screens. The size of the screens will change to trap smaller and smaller items. After this, it is allowed to settle in a grit chamber where sand and other fine particles are allowed to settle. They’re removed and taken to a landfill.

The wastewater moves to tanks where the sludge and solids settle and removed. Depending on the water treatment plant, that sludge and waste may end up in a plant that heats it to kill the bacteria and process it into fertilizer. The remaining wastewater now moves into a secondary treatment. At this stage, oxygen is added to the remaining wastewater to encourage microorganisms to use up the remaining waste. By the time this process ends, as much as 90% of the waste and chemical pollutants are gone.

What remains is disinfected with chemical agents and processed further to make sure the chemicals used to sanitize the water are below the levels recommended by the government. Some wastewater treatment plants use UV lighting to help with this process. Once the water is safe for reuse or bodies of water, it travels to water storage tanks where it ends up at area homes and businesses or it is piped into the lake, river, stream, etc.

Would you like help coming up with a wastewater treatment system that helps protect your district? Does your inefficient system need upgrading? Lakeside Equipment has decades of expertise in designing and installing efficient, cost-effective water treatment systems. Give us a call or send an email to learn more.

With so many wastewater treatment equipment manufacturers, how do you know which company is best? What makes one company better than all of the rest? Use this guide to help decide how to choose the wastewater treatment manufacturer and equipment that will best suit your needs and budget.

Study the Local, State, and Federal Laws

Before you even start calling wastewater treatment manufacturers, you need to come up with an exact list of your plant’s needs. Start by looking at the local, state, and federal laws that apply to the water you’re treating and either sending back to homes or into a body of water.

In addition to the laws, pay attention to the fines you face if you get something wrong. If your equipment can’t handle the flood of water coming in after heavy rain and some effluent is released into a body of water without being properly treated, you face fines. Those fines could negatively impact your water treatment plant.

What Wastewater Are You Cleaning and Treating?

Once you understand the laws, think about the wastewater you’ll be treating Have you completed a study of the wastewater you’ll be treating? This is necessary if you want to have the best understanding of the wastewater contaminants. Are you going to be cleaning storm runoff more than waste pumped from residential septic systems? Are you going to process a lot of residential septic system waste? Will you have wastewater coming from industrial plants or is it mainly residential? Is the wastewater from a restaurant district going to leave you treating a lot of oily water? Is the water loaded with inorganic contaminants?

Knowing the type of wastewater is going to help you in the long run. If you’re getting water from septic systems or sewers that may have items that must be removed, such as tampon applicators or condoms, you’ll need screens and trash or screen rakes to get these items out of the way before they cause problems farther down the line. Wastewater coming in from street runoff will have stones, small branches, and trash that also needs to be removed.

Picking the Best Wastewater Treatment Manufacturer

Once you have decided what equipment is needed, you need to narrow down your choices for manufacturers. You’ll have a budget, so the cost is going to be a driving factor. You don’t want too cheap. Saving money doesn’t always mean you’re getting equipment that lasts, just as spending more doesn’t guarantee a lifetime of dependability.

Look for manufacturers who sell wastewater treatment equipment where the moving parts are not submerged. This can cut maintenance costs. If the parts are never exposed to water, they’re not likely to degrade due to corrosion or mineral build-up from the water. They’re also not exposed to grit.

You need to consider the space you have. For example, when it comes to a grit collection system, Lakeside’s SpiraGrit Vortex Grit Chamber needs less space than the Lakeside Aeroductor. You’ll have effective equipment without overcrowding your site.

Ask the companies on your shortlist to share wastewater treatment plants they’ve designed and installed. If you can see photos of completed projects and read reports of the water quality, cost-effectiveness, and flow rates, it can help you see that the water treatment results you want can be a reality.

Finally, look at the wastewater treatment manufacturer’s history. A company that has decades of experience is going to be more knowledgeable than someone just starting out. An established company is going to have a large network of distributors available so that you don’t have to wait for parts or equipment to be available.

Choose Wisely and You’ll Have an Efficient, Effective System

This all takes time and has to be carefully planned. If you take the time to consider these factors, you’ll have the best possible insight into the type of wastewater equipment you need. It helps you avoid fines down the road from an inefficient system. You also have a system that is cost-effective as it will be designed to last a long time while being energy-efficient and need little maintenance.

Back in 1928, Lakeside Equipment Corporation was founded to help North American municipalities and companies establish water purification systems. The focus has always been on providing systems that efficiently and effectively clean and treat wastewater so that it’s safe, clean water for people to consume or so that it can be returned to natural water sources without fear of introducing bacteria and contaminants.

We’ve had close to a century of experience in wastewater treatment. We know how to evaluate a wastewater treatment manufacture and make sure our customers are choosing the right equipment for their budgets and water treatment needs. Give us a call and let us know how we can help.

Wastewater treatment is critical to survival. As places face droughts and water sources dry up, questions turn to where are people going to get the water they need for cooking, laundry, showers, and hydration. Taking the water households and businesses use, cleaning and treating it, and sending it back into water sources, homes, and businesses is crucial.

The Realities of Water Usage

Around the world, there’s a problem that not every household stops to consider. In the U.S. alone, the average family uses around 300 gallons of water each day. Dishes, showers, toilet flushing, and laundry use the bulk of your water each day. Meanwhile, population growth is causing water usage to increase. The U.S. Geological Survey reports that water withdrawals in the 1950s were around 175 billion gallons per day. Fifty years later, water withdrawals neared 300 billion gallons per day.

While demand increases, the amount of rainfall and snow remain pretty level. You don’t see increased rainfall each year. Some years have more rainfall than others. Some areas see droughts that last for months. This puts a tremendous burden on water bodies that are used for public water.

Location Impacts Usage

A person’s location also impacts water consumption. In a drier climate, people water lawns to keep the grass from dying. That drives up usage. Farms often use irrigation systems on their crops, which also drives up usage. In those regions, more water gets used. Rain and snowfall may not replenish public water sources fast enough.

Only Some Precipitation Makes it to Water Sources

Of the rain and snow that do fall each year, around 70% of it goes back up into the atmosphere through evaporation. A heavy rain or snowfall doesn’t replenish water as quickly as some may believe. If you get an inch of rain during a storm, only 3/10s an inch of that rainfall is going to return to the area’s bodies of water.

You should also consider how much water accumulates in a storm that drops an inch of rain. Over a one-acre piece of land, that amount of rain comes to just over 27,150 gallons of water. As around 70% goes back up into the atmosphere, that means that approximately 8,145 gallons make it to a stream, river, pond, lake, or other bodies of water.

While that may be okay if an inch of rain happened daily across the nation, it doesn’t. Some areas don’t experience rain more than a few weeks per year. Wastewater treatment is an essential part of recycling the water people use and returning it to the nation’s streams, ponds, lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water. Wastewater may also go into public water systems where it’s reused in homes and businesses.

Deteriorating Infrastructure Is Another Problem

Adding to the issues of public water systems is the deteriorating infrastructure the U.S. is experiencing. Roadways, bridges, and rail systems aren’t all that make up the infrastructure. The underground piping that brings water from a water treatment plant or water storage tanks to homes and businesses is also a big part of the problem. The EPA estimates that in the next 25 years, around $271 billion is needed to improve and maintain the current water infrastructure. It’s important to replace rusting, rotten water mains that break and lead to large leaks. Leaks in a person’s home or business also account to as much as 12% of the average daily water use.

We Need to Work Together

Homeowners and businesses should do their part by reducing consumption by fixing leaks, updating older appliances that are water hogs, and collecting water in rain barrels for watering gardens and lawns. Limiting the time spent in a shower and proper maintenance of septic systems also helps. Water treatment plants must also do their part.

Water treatment plants lower energy consumption and prevent leaks by making sure their equipment is updated before it breaks down. Newer equipment is designed for a long life and helps lower expenses. You can also add components that are automated for optimal performance. By working together, it helps ensure there is safe drinking water for everyone, and it keeps costs as low as possible for taxpayers.

When was the last time your wastewater district updated equipment to reduce energy consumption and improve efficiency? If it’s been a while, you need to talk to our experts. Lakeside Equipment has more than 90 years of experience with water purification. We’ll help you find upgrades that work for your community and are cost-effective options. Call us at (630) 837-5640 for more information.

More than 14,700 publicly-owned water treatment plants clean the wastewater for homes and businesses in the U.S. despite this, it’s still reported that more than half of the rivers and streams and almost three-quarters of the lakes in the nation have an “impaired” classification from the EPA. Cleaning and treatment water is essential before it returns to bodies of water, but some things are very difficult to remove from wastewater.

#1 – Pharmaceuticals

Between 2012 and 2014, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey tested the water from 20 wastewater treatment plants. They were looking for 200 prescription medications, over-the-counter drugs, and chemicals. The study looked at plants that processed wastewater from residential areas and some that processed water from pharmaceutical companies. The water being treated from pharmaceutical companies contained extremely high quantities of medications, and after treatment, the levels of those medications were still higher than experts feel is appropriate.

In all, more than 30 of the medications they were looking for were found in treated water. One of those drugs is an antidepressant. After water treatment, the levels of the medication still in water was estimated to be 35 times higher than would be the safe dosage for a fish. When that water goes into lakes and streams, it can end up in the fish and aquatic creatures where it may impact their health. For people who eat fish, they may end up ingesting those medications.

# 2 – Hormones

Hormones have been found in wastewater. Estrogen is one of them. In some cases, the estrogen does come from medications, but some are natural forms of estrogen. Hormones from steroids are also found in water. When hormones make it into the water released into water sources, it can affect the development of fish and plants. It’s found that estrogen affects how plants develop flowers and germinate. A study found that exposure to hormones lowered sperm count and testes size of male fish. It impacted the heart health of tadpoles.

#3 – Trihalomethanes

It’s almost impossible to avoid having trihalomethanes (THMs) in the final stage of water treatment. THMs are a byproduct of total organic carbons reacting with the chlorine used to kill any remaining bacteria. It’s believed that exposure to too much THMs can increase the risk of cancer or impact reproductive health.

#4 – Microbeads

Microbeads are tiny plastic pellets commonly found in beauty products. They’re meant to help better exfoliate the skin. You may find them in body washes, toothpaste, and shampoo. Larger plastics that are exposed to sun and environmental forces may also break down plastics into tiny pieces of plastic. As the beads and pieces are so tiny, they often get through the screening aspect of wastewater treatment. If they’re not caught during the water treatment process, they can end back up in bodies of water where fish and other aquatic species ingest them.

The U.S. has taken strides to remove microbeads from products. More work is to be done, however, as scientists believe most Americans eat up to 52,000 microbeads each year. A Google contest got students thinking about the best ways to remove microbeads from wastewater, and it’s led to some great ideas.

#5 – Sodium and Potassium Chloride

When a household is one a well and that well water is hard, a water softener is installed to improve the water quality. That water treatment process often relies on potassium or sodium chloride, which ends up in wastewater treatment plants. Towns and cities that use road salt to treat roads in the winter also use introduce chloride to runoff. If the chloride isn’t removed properly, it can kill the aquatic plants that fish and small aquatic creatures rely on for survival.

While it is possible to remove chloride, it’s not always affordable as it takes upgraded equipment. A Wisconsin wastewater treatment district reports that to remove it all could increase costs by as much as 500%.

Effective Water Treatment Solutions

Wastewater treatment plants that upgrade their equipment to use newer methods of water treatment do have an easier time removing these items from wastewater. Up to 99% of pharmaceuticals are removed when treatment processes include activated carbon filtering, advanced oxidation, nanofiltration, ozonation, or reverse osmosis.

The cleaner the water is before chlorine is added, the lower the risk of developing THMs. They only occur if total organic carbons, which occur naturally when vegetation decays or bacteria grow, mix with chlorine. If you have removed the majority before chlorination, you avoid the development of THMs.

Clarification and filtration systems that remove fine solids. A plant needs to screen out larger particles like rocks and plastics, remove the grit, allow solids to separate and be removed, and aerate the resulting liquid. The second round of settling takes place and the wastewater is filtered. It’s then disinfected.

Lakeside Equipment offers complete water treatment plant packages designed to match your budget and plant size. If you need to upgrade your equipment or purchase parts, we’re also happy to help. You’ll work with a designated engineer throughout your project. Call us to learn more.

Wastewater treatment plants throughout the United States process close to 34 billion gallons of wastewater each day. This wastewater comes from septic systems, sewers, factories, and storm runoff. As it contains human and animal waste, cleaners, body products, and grit, it has to go through several steps before it’s released back into a local body of water or storage tanks where it’s used to provide water to area homes and businesses.

Why clean it? There are several reasons, but the most important is that wastewater is full of bacteria that can harm you. Nitrogen and phosphorus damage lakes and rivers by increasing the rate at which harmful algae grows. This algae starve lakes of oxygen and lead to fish and other aquatic creatures to die.

Water is not safe to drink or swim in if it contains high levels of bacteria. If it’s used to water vegetables, it could spread diseases like E-coli or salmonella if the produce isn’t washed properly or cooked to kill the bacteria. There’s also the issue of heavy metals like lead and mercury. Mercury gets into the fish people eat, so it’s important to remove it before the water returns to lakes, rivers, and the oceans. Three key steps take place to clean and purify the water before it can be returned.

The First Step

The first stage of a water treatment process is to remove large pieces of waste and debris from the wastewater. Human and animal waste, sticks and stones, and trash are removed using screens and rakes. Screens come in different sizes so that larger material is caught first. The wastewater continues on the way passing through smaller and smaller screen sizes. Eventually, it will pass through a fine screen before it moves to the next process. All of that debris and waste that is caught goes to incinerators, compost, or landfills.

If the wastewater treatment plant is above the ground level, pumps are needed to move the remaining liquid to the next stage. Otherwise, gravity helps the remaining wastewater on its journey. At this point, the wastewater is still a mix of liquids with smaller clumps of fecal matter, sand, coffee grounds, and other finer grit that screens cannot catch.

The Second Step

At this point, one of three methods takes place. The goal is to remove those fine particles and start breaking down the organic materials.

#1 – Aeration

With aeration, the remaining wastewater is mixed the microorganisms that help break down all of the remaining organic materials. The process of decay begins in the aeration tanks. The aeration also helps by forcing grit to the bottom of the grit collection tanks where those fine particles of sand, coffee grounds, etc. can be removed and taken to compost piles or landfills. The liquids or organic sludge are pushed to the top of the bank where it continues the aeration process.

#2 – Biofiltration

Biofiltration is a slow process where the wastewater trickles through contact, sand, or trickling filters to capture sediment. This is not a process you’ll see used often as it’s slow and can only process so much wastewater at a time. Towns that use it are usually only processing small amounts of wastewater each day.

#3 – Oxidation Ponds

Oxidation ponds require heat to work properly, so they’re also not the first choice of most wastewater treatment plants. Wastewater is pumped to ponds where the water naturally breaks down over several weeks with the help of sun and algae. It’s uncommon to see them for treating wastewater in the U.S., but you might notice a farm with a manure pit that goes through the same process before the manure is reused to fertilize farm fields.

In the U.S., aeration is the most common second step in water treatment. It’s effective, efficient, and is capable of managing the amount of wastewater reaching most plants every day.

The Third and Final Step

Before the water is truly clear and safe to return to bodies of water or homes and businesses, it must be filtered to remove any off-color and odors. It’s treated with chemicals to kill any remaining bacteria and goes to tanks where the chlorinated water is exposed to UV to reduce chlorine to safe levels. From there, it’s piped to holding tanks or back into lakes, streams, or other bodies of water.

Save time and money on an inefficient wastewater system. Lakeside Equipment can help you upgrade your equipment for trouble-free operation with equipment that does a great job removing debris and solids automatically. Our goal is to design a system or arrange upgrades that boost your plant’s performance without driving up costs on the residents in your water district. Call us for more information.

Is it time to upgrade your water treatment plant? The EPA estimates that wastewater treatment plants process close to 34 billion gallons of wastewater each day. That’s more than 12 trillion gallons each year. It’s stunning. Now consider how much it costs to treat that water. When you consider salaries, administration, and operating costs, it can be substantial.

Just to run a wastewater treatment plant, you have the cost of chemicals, the pumps and machinery, and maintenance of that machinery and piping. The more upgrades you make to modern, more energy-efficient technologies, the more you’ll save the people in your district. Some changes are easy to make and don’t cost much. Switch out old lighting fixtures for energy-efficient LED fixtures and bulbs. That will save some money. When it comes to your plant’s equipment, these are the three upgrades you must consider.

New Pumps Reduce Maintenance Costs, Improve Efficiency and Slash Electricity Bills

When was the last time you replaced the pumps and motors in your plant? Older motors and pumps breakdown regularly and are often inefficient. You lose time and money when a pump stops working and has to be repaired. You also end up paying maintenance workers more as they’re spending extra time fixing old, worn-out components.

Screw pumps move a lot of wastewater without a lot of moving parts that wear out and need repair. Lakeside Equipment’s screw pumps offer 70% efficiency, which lowers your power consumption. Plus the capacity is variable and doesn’t need special controls to operate. That cuts the cost when it comes to replacing equipment. If you choose a Type C Pump, it is up to 10% more efficient than an Open Screw Pump.

Anaerobic Digesters That Produce Methane to Help Heat and Power Your Plant

Have you considered heating your water treatment plant as part of your treatment process? The installation of anaerobic digesters do this for you. The digesters produce methane. You can take the methane they produce and burn them in a Combined Heat and Power system that heats your plant and also provides some of the power you’re using to run the facility.

The Closed Loop Reactor (CLR) Process uses pumps to mix, aerate, and recirculate wastewater while Biological Nutrient Removal processes help remove phosphorus and nitrogen. Aeration systems can be costly to run, but with high-efficiency models and automated controls, you can drastically reduce your energy consumption. Plus, you’ll add anaerobic tanks and capture the methane. With the CLR, you’re already minimizing costs because it doesn’t need a lot of babysitting by your employees. It’s also one of the best designs if you want to reduce your plant’s energy usage.

Reduce Power Bills With Fully-Integrated Controls

If you’re looking to boost your plant’s efficiency, you likely have a SCADA system in place. SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) allows you to constantly monitor water quality, view your plant’s security, and allow for emergency shutdowns if alarms go off. Pair SCADA with fully-integrated process controls. You’ll be able to study all areas of the wastewater treatment plant and see what equipment is stopped, where the nitrogen levels are, and what percentages aeration is at. From one computer, you can adjust things as needed to boost efficiency, which reduces energy costs and increases your plant’s performance.

Changes Do Cost Money, But Savings Make Up For It

One thing that keeps wastewater treatment plant owners from making upgrades is the initial cost of the equipment and its installation. There is going to be an upfront cost that can seem high. However, you need to look at the savings. For many of these upgrades, the money you save being energy-efficient ends up paying for equipment over a year or two. The upgrades pay for themselves. Energy-efficiency loans and grants may help you pay for the upgrades. For a wastewater treatment plant in Idaho, savings after making energy-efficient equipment upgrades came to around $635,000 per year. The company got a low-interest loan to make the upgrades that included LED lighting fixtures, anaerobic digesters, new diffusers, blowers, and a dissolved oxygen control system.

Lakeside Equipment has close to a century of experience in wastewater treatment equipment. We pride ourselves in improving the quality of water throughout the world while keeping to a customer’s budget. We offer the highest quality water treatment equipment in the industry and exceptional customer service when it comes to upgrades and replacement parts. Give us a call. We’re happy to discuss these and other energy-efficient upgrades that will save your wastewater treatment plant money.

Changes to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 led to the Clean Water Act we know today. Every few years, new rules or amendments continue to improve water quality across the nation. We’ve seen amendments in 1977 and 1978, 1984 and 1985, 1987, 1990, 1993 and 1994, right up to the Phase II Store Water Rule and Confined Animal Feeding Operation Rule in 1999 and 2002.

If you’re only updating your wastewater treatment plan when amendments are added or altered, you’re doing your plant and residential customers a disservice. You should always be looking at ways to be more efficient and more effective. With some areas experiencing lengthy droughts and increased water usage, we all need to do more to reuse wastewater. That’s just one area to focus your attention on.

Problems Wastewater Treatment Plants Face

The population keeps growing. With those changes, the EPA points out some of the biggest problems wastewater treatments face. All of them need to be addressed. You may not need to take care of them now, but you shouldn’t be caught by surprise if any of these common issues occur. By planning for them in advance, you’re able to arrange the improvements before it’s an emergency.

#1 – Wastewater treatment plants in many corners of the U.S. are aging. If you haven’t updated your equipment, you’re wasting money on repairs and paying more in electricity because the older wastewater equipment uses more energy than newer models.

#2 – Expanding populations may be taxing your system. St. George, Utah, has seen its population expand by close to 6.7 times over the past four decades. The Virgin River watershed is the area’s largest source of water. Officials are looking at building a 140-mile pipeline from Lake Powell to St. George. They’re planning in advance of a crisis. This is what you should be thinking about when you’re looking over your water treatment plan.

#3 – The range of contaminants getting into wastewater has changed over the decades. The increase in population also impacts this. People are building more homes in the country that require septic systems as sewer systems don’t tend to expand past the cities and suburbs. Homes on septic systems have high rates of nitrogen and phosphorus in their septic system’s fluids and solids. Older water treatment plants may not remove as much as a newer system. The elevated levels of nitrogen and phosphorus make their way into waterways where it causes algal blooms to flourish. Prescription medication usage and household cleaners also make their way into the wastewater.

#4 – Farms are on a decline in some areas. In areas where farming is still a major industry, the runoff of fertilizers and manure adds to pollution. That runoff can make its way into streams and rivers without being treated. Communities are working at changing that as the pollution shows up in lakes and other water sources. When those bodies of water are part of a municipal water system, water treatment plants have to make sure the water they treat meets quality standards. That can be harder when they’re dealing with chemical fertilizers and animal manure.

Upgrades That Pay For Themselves

Wastewater treatment plants can power the equipment using nature. Solar and wind power are two ways to power the machinery used in a plant without driving up larger electricity bills. A wastewater treatment plant in Massachusetts added a fixed-array solar system to provide power to some of the town’s water treatment plant. Since that addition, the monthly utility bill has dropped by approximately 50%. The company is able to clean water and keep costs down for the area’s taxpayers. It’s a win-win for both sides.

Newer equipment can be easier to maintain. Today’s screw pumps are designed to lower your operating costs and cut maintenance costs. Grit washers that keep the bearings above the water leave don’t require as much in maintenance costs. This keeps your costs down. Corrosion-resistant stainless steel helps your equipment last longer, which also cuts equipment costs. Are you worried about the expense of constructing a new system? A Raptor Complete Plant is pre-assembled to save time and money when upgrading your equipment.

How often you upgrade your water treatment plan does require a little thought. A system that was built to handle the expanding population may not need upgrades as often as a small-town system that’s older and at max capacity. Lakeside Equipment is happy to discuss your current system and the improvements that are cost-effective and energy-efficient.

Since 1928, Lakeside Equipment has been helping our customers create water treatment systems that are both efficient and cost-effective. Lakeside is committed to planning and installing quality systems that benefit the public and the companies that work hard to keep the water clean. Give us a call to discuss how you can upgrade your system so that the improvements pay for themselves.

A municipal wastewater treatment facility must meet regulations. The problem is those regulations change. If your plant’s equipment is failing to meet the changing regulations, you face fines and penalties. If you’re just starting out, those same regulations apply to your new water treatment plant.

The goal of wastewater treatment is to remove pollutants and contaminants from sewer/septic water and run-off. Animal waste, chemical cleaners, pharmaceuticals, and pathogens like cholera are all examples of these contaminants and pollutants. In order to keep streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans clean for swimming and fishing, water must be cleaned, treated, and returned to homes or the environment. Before the water is returned, it must meet tests to ensure it’s free of minerals and heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and mercury. These guidelines are set by the government.

How do you meet the demands of the municipality you’re serving and keep up with the changing regulations? These municipal wastewater treatment tips help you prioritize the importance of the right wastewater treatment system.

Recycling Water is Important to the Planet’s Future

The EPA estimates a person uses 80 to 100 gallons of water each day. Agricultural use raises this even higher. The USGS estimates 322 billion gallons are used each day in all. Residential use is around 39 billion gallons per day.

The importance of recycling wastewater has been shown around the world as water sources dry up. Lake Mead is a good example. The lake provides water to the majority of homes in Southern Nevada. The lake level has decreased drastically over the years. When full, the lake is just under 1,230 feet. In recent years, the lake has reached a high of 1,090 feet. Recycled water could lower the demand for these water sources. Instead of drawing from lakes and rivers, water treatment plants could turn wastewater into clean drinking water to return to public water sources.

Maintenance is a Must

Juneau, Alaska, learned about inadequate wastewater systems back in 2000 when the EPA sued the city for $60,000 and talked about criminal charges for allowing raw sewage to be discharged into local waterways. Some of the wastewater was backing up into homes. Public Works found that a lack of maintenance was to blame. Preventative maintenance and timely repairs would have prevented this lawsuit.

You should not wait until a part fails before you take steps to repair it. Scheduled maintenance keeps equipment running. It also lets you know when upgrades or repairs are essential to ensure you’re meeting regulations. In Juneau’s case, the fecal coliform counts in the water released to the waterways was 437,000 percent higher than the EPA allows.

Consider Future Residential Growth

Juneau’s system can handle 35,000 residents, but it’s expected that the population will exceed the current systems in 15 years or so. A new plant would be expensive to build. The city estimates that connections to a new location could cost as much as $30,000 per lot and around $1,000 per meter of necessary piping. Landowners currently pay $5,000 per lot. The city would need to get grant money and loans to offset the cost to homeowners.

Water treatment plants need to consider future growth. If your system is able to handle the wastewater from 25,000 residents now, what happens if there is a population boom 5, 10, or 20 years from now. You’ll be forced to expand, whether you have the money available or not. If you look to the future from the start, you’re able to buy time until the expansion is needed. You also avoid costly fines from the EPA.

Upgrades That Boost Efficiency Are Worth the Expense

Don’t avoid upgrading your wastewater treatment equipment due to the cost. As one water precinct learned, upgrades ended up paying for themselves in little time. Adding solar panels or wind turbines to power their equipment saved them money. Variable-frequency drives also added extra savings bringing the total yearly savings to around $80,000 with just a few upgrades.

A water treatment plant’s biggest expense is power. Get equipment that uses less electricity than your current equipment. Energy-efficient motors, variable-frequency drives, and switching to LED lighting makes a difference. Choose aerators that use less horsepower while being just as effective. Running motors more during the night when electricity rates are reduced also lowers operating costs.

If you’re new or building a new plant, you’re probably already getting energy-efficient wastewater treatment equipment. You’ll still lower your operating costs by looking at renewable energy sources like solar and wind power for some of the electricity your facility consumes.

Talk to Lakeside Equipment about these and other tips to help your municipal wastewater treatment plant work efficiently and effectively. We offer a wide range of wastewater treatment equipment and parts to ensure you stay within your budget while improving your system. Give us a call at (630) 837-5640.

Water treatment technology has come a long way. New Jersey’s Jersey City started everything by being the nation’s first city to regularly treating water for the community’s residents. That was 1908. Within 10 years, thousands of other communities followed suit and helped lower the rates of disease and infection linked to contaminated water.

At the time, cholera and typhoid fever were two of the most common diseases spread through contaminated water. By 1920, less than 20 years from the nation’s first water treatment system, the number of cases declined from 0.001% of the population to approximately 0.00034%. Advancements in water treatment continue to help eliminate these diseases. In 2006, the number of cases was minuscule at 0.000001%.

Today’s focus isn’t all on quality. Today’s water treatment advancements focus on everything from energy efficiency to recycling wastewater. Here are five innovations in water technology you need to know about.

Solar-Powered Water Treatment

The reliance on electricity has been a concern for water treatment. If a power grid is knocked out for days following a catastrophic event or storm, it can severely impact water treatment plants. The loss of pressure can allow contaminants to get into groundwater. If a pump shuts down, untreated sewage could get into nearby streams, rivers, and lakes.

Zero-emissions is another focus. Cleaner air is important for the world. The more people embrace green practices, the less impact these processes have on the environment. There’s also the cost of running a plant. Water treatment is paid for through water bills. Homeowners may struggle with increasing bills. Keeping costs low for the community is important.

One of the ways companies are working around this is by tapping into the sun’s energy. An Arizona water treatment plant installed close to 23,000 solar panels to produce the bulk of the energy needed to operate the plant. By switching to solar power, the plant expects to save more than $1.6 million.

The Sun Can Also Help Process Hydrogen

Hydrogen is used in everything from the fertilizer that farms use to plastics manufacturing. Princeton University came up with a way to draw hydrogen from wastewater using the power of the sun. By creating a silicon processing chamber, bacteria and sun work together to force the water to split. The hydrogen bubbles to the top where it can be collected and used in industrial settings. The water continues on its way through the water treatment plant.

Turning Algae Into Biofuel

Gas-powered cars are the norm. Many heating systems rely on propane and kerosene. Researchers have been working hard to find alternatives to gas. Researchers are looking at algae as an option. With an algae water treatment plant, it can double as a biofuel plant.

Some wastewater treatment plants use algae to process some of the waste. After the effluent is treated, you have algae left over. That algae can be converted into biofuel. Algae used for treating water also helps lower electricity use. A Cal Poly study compared a nutrient-removal system to an algae system and the cost dropped from around $950,000 per year to $300,000.

Membrane Water Treatment

A water treatment plant in Singapore is testing out technology designed to reduce liquid waste by more than 90%. A fiber membrane filter allows water to pass through the filter at speeds that are 30% faster than current filtration systems. The metals in the wastewater the filter processes go into a concentrated liquid that can be reused in other industries. It’s believed the energy savings will be five times less at a membrane filtration plant.

Improved Stormwater Management

In the country, heavy rainfall puddles on the ground and eventually works its way through the soil where it’s filtered. In a city, that heavy rainfall rushes to the sewers where it can overload a water treatment plant. It may back up and cause flooding that causes erosion.

Stormwater management techniques are being developed to help prevent this. Some of the methods being used are to have water from rooftops go into gutters that connect to rain barrels. Those rain barrels can be used to water gardens. Rain gardens are popping up on the sides of city streets to collect runoff. It adds greenery to city streets, which also boosts oxygen going into the environment. This all lowers the rush of water going to water treatment plants or running into streams and lakes where the polluted water enters the water source without first being treated.

Lakeside Equipment understands the advancements the water treatment industry has seen. Founded in 1928, we’ve helped customers around the world create clean water for people in a cost-effective manner. We pride ourselves on quality systems that match your budget. Call us for more information.