Hard water has been causing issues for humanity for ages, whether it is making it difficult to wash our clothes and cars, or depositing on our hot water heaters and kettles. Hardness scale is typically the combination of calcium and magnesium compounds that have precipitated out of water (e.g., calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate). This tough deposit forms in HVAC cooling systems and process water systems and can wreak havoc by decreasing system life and increasing energy usage, maintenance, and operational costs.
How Site Surveys Could Add Up to Savings!
The scariest four words in the United States are “you are being audited.” These words are usually associated with the IRS reviewing tax filings and typically result in additional taxes, penalties, and fees. But in water management, being audited should be looked at from a completely different view. A water management audit works in much the same way as a routine checkup at your doctor’s office. During an audit, your system is reviewed for ways to improve its overall health. This goes beyond just increasing cycles to reduce blowdown and energy consumption. Audits focus on identifying other potential sources of makeup water, water reuse, and improved efficiencies.
Water is one of the most abundant resources we have in the world. It is considered the ultimate sustainable resource due to the hydrologic cycle that returns water back to nature for reuse in the form of precipitation. This precipitation, when immediately formed, will be water in its purest form. As it falls through the sky and travels to the different water sources (e.g., ground water, surface water, etc.) it will pick up a variety of impurities. Water is therefore commonly called the universal solvent since it has the ability to dissolve, to a certain extent, almost every substance found in nature. However, not all water qualities are the same and will vary across geographic regions.
With the impact of COVID-19, the ongoing partnership between plant personnel and your water treatment provider is more important than ever. Water systems, such as cooling towers and boilers, are dynamic systems by design. In today’s environment, they may not be operating as consistently as before with entire processes or facilities being shut down with little warning and, just as quickly, started back up.
COVID-19 has brought the phrase “social distancing” to the forefront, and many locations won’t allow nonessential employees or vendors on site at all. Not only has this changed the world we live in, but the outbreak has changed the value proposition for water treatment controls and services. It has forced us to proceed quickly into the future.
As coronavirus continues to spread across the country, many facilities including college dorms, hotels, vacation condos, shopping malls, and other buildings are being shut down unexpectedly or operated with very low occupancy. As a result, building water systems that normally have hundreds or thousands of gallons of water flowing through the fixtures, piping, and equipment daily may be stagnant for an unknown period of time, maybe several months.
Calculating Parts Per Million
The phrase “Part Per Million” is a term we use to describe very small amounts of something in a much larger amount of something else. Here are some examples of one part of something in a million parts:
What We Can Learn from Flint
On a recent episode of the Public Broadcasting Systems’ Frontline “Flint’s Deadly Water,” investigative reporters looked deeply at the city of Flint from 2014 to now in hopes of identifying the true causes of the water crisis and the cause of the many deaths. As an outsider, we immediately associate Flint with a lead crisis, which undoubtedly remains an issue. However, Frontline finally dives deeper and states that Legionnaires Disease is the true public health crisis that happened in Flint. Below is a summary of the research they did and their findings.
How Blended Water Supplies Impact Water Treatment
The source(s) of water supplied to cooling towers, boilers, and processes may vary greatly daily or even hourly. The impact this has on water systems must be closely monitored to avoid scale, deposits, corrosion, inefficient water usage, and other negative impacts on operational costs.
Chem-Aqua representatives are frequently asked, “How often do I need to test my water?” The answer to this question is as varied as the systems that Chem-Aqua treats. There are a number of factors that go into determining the “best practice” for each facility. Typically, these factors are: