Evoqua’s CoMag® System Selected by Alderson, W.Va., to Enhance Solids Settling Performance

PITTSBURGH--()--Evoqua Water Technologies has been selected by Alderson, W.Va., to supply its industry-leading CoMag® ballasted clarification system to enhance the performance of the Alderson Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). Alderson will be the fifth wastewater treatment facility in West Virginia to use Evoqua’s ballasted settling technologies.

“We are very pleased that the CoMag system will help us save money by reusing existing tankage,” said Travis Copenhaver, Alderson’s mayor. “We are also appreciative that the contractor, Breckenridge Corp., will be able to complete the project for ten percent less than the original estimate.”

The CoMag system uses magnetite – fully oxidized, iron ore particles – to enhance the clarification process. The system settles chemical floc up to 30 times faster than conventional clarification.

For communities that face challenging wastewater characteristics due to super-concentrated industrial discharge or dense populations, the CoMag system is the ideal solution. The tertiary CoMag system will help Alderson’s existing oxidation ditch and secondary clarifiers to cost-effectively reduce both total suspended solids and phosphorus before the treated water discharges into the Greenbrier River.

Algal blooms have been triggered by high levels of phosphorus in the river. To combat the blooms, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection imposed summertime effluent phosphorus limits on several WWTPs, including Alderson. The CoMag system will sharply decrease the amount of phosphorus that the Alderson WWTP discharges to ensure compliance with the state’s new phosphorus limits. And the system will meet these new limits economically by reusing existing infrastructure.

“We are helping Alderson save money by repurposing its existing chlorine contact basin as a reaction tank for the CoMag system before the wastewater goes to the clarifier,” said Marc Roehl, vice president and general manager of Evoqua’s Municipal Wastewater Treatment division. “Alderson is adding a new ultraviolet disinfection process along with the CoMag system, which makes its current chlorine contact basin available for reuse.”

In addition to the Alderson facility, four Berkeley County, W. Va., WWTPs are already using the BioMag® system, which infuses magnetite into biological floc, to enhance the clarification process. The City of Martinsburg wastewater treatment facility, also in Berkeley County, uses the CoMag system.

The Alderson project engineer is Stafford Consultants, which is based in Princeton, W. Va.

About the CoMag System

The CoMag system settles floc up to 30 times faster than conventional treatments, enabling plants to increase capacity and clarifier performance. It can achieve total phosphorous down to 0.05 mg/L and can achieve UV transmittance greater than 75 percent when integrated into any type of coagulation/flocculation process or clarifier. The CoMag system also is the only ballasting technology with an internal recycle from clarifier underflow to process tanks, which reduces chemical consumption. Magnetite ballast, which is added into the chemical reactor to accelerate settling, is continuously separated from the clarifier underflow stream. Typically, 99 percent of the magnetite is recovered and reused in the system.

For more information, visit www.evoqua.com/comag.

Contacts

Evoqua Water Technologies
Kevin G. Lowery
724-772-1527 office
724-7191475 mobile

Release Summary

Evoqua’s CoMag® System Selected by Alderson, W.Va., to Enhance Solids Settling Performance

Contacts

Evoqua Water Technologies
Kevin G. Lowery
724-772-1527 office
724-7191475 mobile