Why Should I Have My Site Audited?

How Site Surveys Could Add Up to Savings!

  • 26 May 2020
  • Author: Jeff Lazor
  • Number of views: 3883
  • 0 Comments
Why Should I Have My Site Audited?

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.

Solid Water Treatment Chemistry

A Safer, Easier to Handle, and More Sustainable Solution

Solid Water Treatment Chemistry

Cooling towers, steam boilers, and recirculating closed loop systems require effective water treatment chemistry for reliable and efficient operation. Liquid treatment chemicals are traditionally used because they are easier to manufacture and add to systems. But liquids aren’t always the best fit and present safety and environmental concerns that are often overlooked. 

Don't Let Biofilms Take Control of Your Cooling Tower System!

Don't Let Biofilms Take Control of Your Cooling Tower System!

Biofilm deposits are one of the most difficult challenges your cooling water systems face. They tend to start in areas not accessible to biocide treatments, and can quickly grow to form biofouling deposits that can cause corrosion damage, blockages, reduced heat transfer, and amplify the growth of Legionella bacteria. Once they become established, biofilms are incredibly tenacious and difficult to remove.

Common Problem-Causing Impurities in Water

Common Problem-Causing Impurities in Water

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.

COVID-19:  A Partnership Approach to Water Treatment Is More Important than Ever

  • 21 April 2020
  • Author: Jeff Lazor
  • Number of views: 4255
  • 0 Comments
COVID-19:  A Partnership Approach to Water Treatment Is More Important than Ever

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.

How Does Legionella Get Into My Building?

  • 7 April 2020
  • Author: Dominick Tuzzo
  • Number of views: 4370
  • 0 Comments
How Does Legionella Get Into My Building?

Whether your building is newly constructed or even 100+ years old, chances are, sooner or later, it can become colonized with opportunistic premise plumbing pathogens (OPPP’s) such as Legionella. 

As facultative intracellular pathogens, meaning they are capable of living either inside or outside of other host cells, Legionella enters your building water system(s) as an endosymbiont of another organism.  Translated:  they hitch a ride into your building inside of amoeboid cells which, incidentally, function as their natural host organisms in the aquatic environment.

COVID-19 and the Internet of Water Treatment

  • 31 March 2020
  • Author: Jeff Lazor
  • Number of views: 4497
  • 0 Comments
COVID-19 and the Internet of Water Treatment

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.

Addressing Stagnant Water in Buildings Due to COVID-19 Shutdowns

  • 23 March 2020
  • Author: Chem-Aqua, Inc
  • Number of views: 6224
  • 0 Comments
Addressing Stagnant Water in Buildings Due to COVID-19 Shutdowns

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. 

Where Should I Sample for Legionella?

  • 3 March 2020
  • Author: Dominick Tuzzo
  • Number of views: 3710
  • 0 Comments
Where Should I Sample for Legionella?

Should your Water Management Plan (WMP) Program Team decide to utilize environmental water sampling to validate the effectiveness of the WMP, ANSI/ASHRAE 188-2018 advises that these tests should be performed by a laboratory accredited to a nationally or internationally recognized standard (e.g., ISO/IEC 17025:2017), with Legionellaa included in the laboratory’s scope of accreditation.

Before environmental sampling is undertaken, a Sampling Plan should be formulated.  This plan should list the devices and Points of Use (POUs) to be sampled, at what frequency sampling will be performed, what the acceptable control limits will be, and what the response protocol will be for any sample result(s) falling outside of the previously-established control limits. 

How Chillers Work

  • 14 January 2020
  • Author: James McDonald
  • Number of views: 11937
  • 1 Comments
How Chillers Work

Factories, warehouses, healthcare facilities, commercial buildings, and office spaces generate unwanted heat that must be removed from the process, equipment, or occupants inside. Chillers may be used to remove this heat by transferring it to the atmosphere either by air or water cooled chillers. At the heart of the chilling process is the evaporation of a liquid refrigerant into a gas. Two basic types of chillers include vapor compression and absorption. In this blog, we will focus on the vapor compression chiller.

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