Small Scale Water Treatment Plant

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Thread Starter

Willy Smith

Hi List,

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but today's headlines
really gave me more impetus:
(http://www.nacion.co.cr/ln_ee/2001/julio/16/pais1.html). More than 1500
people are sick from contamination in a municipal water supply.

In the town where we live, many people get sick every year from drinking
the tap water. One incident involved a dead cow in the water supply; in
today's situation (not in our area, but nearby), the problem has been
traced to a dead horse in a reservoir. Even though we mostly drink bottled
water, and have in-line filters for the house, it still bothers me
somewhat to even take showers if the water has even a chance of being that
bad.

So I have two points that I would like to know about:

1) Does anyone have recommendations on building a small water purification
plant that can continously supply fresh water for one or several families?

2) Could anyone provide recommendations for a similar system, but for
small villages (1,000 people or so)?

I would appreciate any pointers to books, or personal knowledge. I have
information that I've found surfing, but I'm just hoping that some on this
list already have some good practical advice for us. I hope to get these
answers not just for me personally, but also for any other people that are
interested, both here in Costa Rica and elsewhere. Thanks in advance for
any help.

Regards,

Willy Smith
San Isidro de Heredia
Costa Rica
 
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Michael Griffin

I don't know much about water treatment, but I have heard of the following company because they are in the same city as I am.

Trojan Technologies Inc. Worldwide Head Office:
3020 Gore Road, London, Ontario, Canada
N5V 4T7
tel: 519-457-3400 fax: 519-457-3030

http://www.trojanuv.com/

They make UV water treatment systems for both water and waste water.
They have equipment in sizes suitable for individual households and also up
to municipal and industrial treatment systems. They have customers all over
the world.

As I understand it, UV treatment systems work by sterilising the
water. They don't actually kill the bacteria (and various other bugs)
directly. Rather they cause enough genetic damage to prevent them from
reproducing. The advantage of UV over various other systems is that it
doesn't use chemicals. This sounds like it may be the type of system you are
looking for.

I don't have any connection with this company, and as I said I don't
know much about UV water treatment. However, I know someone who used to work
for them, and he once mentioned that there are significant differences in
the performance of different brands and types of water treatment systems. He
felt that Trojan's equipment was the best, although he may have been a bit
biased in favour of his old company in that regards. However, the point he
was making at the time was that not all water treatment systems, nor all UV
systems, are equivalent, and you should research the subject in detail
before installing anything.

**********************
Michael Griffin
London, Ont. Canada
**********************
 
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Bruce Durdle

On a recent visit to the Philippines, I was amazed at the number of small
backyard-sized operations using Reverse Osmosis to purify water - all
licensed by the town council. I have also been advised by one of my
contacts in industry who is a water treatment guru that RO is the
technology of the future.

Bruce.
 
W
The technology gets less and less expensive every day, and is commonly being
used for POU (Point of Use) treatment now worldwide. It is actually pretty
easy to build a small (say up to 1000 GPM) RO plant, out of standard off the
shelf components and controls. Alamo Water Treatment, for example can do it
for you and ship it anywhere, and they are not a _whole_ lot bigger than a
garage shop.

Walt Boyes

---------------------------------------------
Walt Boyes -- MarketingPractice Consultants
[email protected]
21118 SE 278th Place - Maple Valley, WA 98038
253-709-5046 cell 425-432-8262 home office
fax:801-749-7142 ICQ: 59435534

"Strategic marketing, sales and electronic
business consulting for the small and medium-sized
enterprise: http://www.waltboyes.com"
---------------------------------------------
 
P

plcapplications.com

You might want to contact Watersolve International. They build a variety of
water treatment systems and install them in locations around the world.
Check them out at http://www.watersolve.com. (I'm not affiliated with them,
but looked at doing some work for them a while back).

Don Willbanks
Newton-Willbanks Engineering, Inc.
 
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www.alamowater.com

This is not to be construed as an advertisement for alamo water. There are other companies who can do this too. I have worked with alamo in the past, and know them.

Walt Boyes
 
C
Mr smith,
Good question. I do wish I could provide you with an answer and I hope that you have already received the information you were looking for.
If you have received useful information I would appreciate it if you could guide me to the source or relay it to me. I am attempting to supply clean water to a small community in Colorado that has until now been using raw water from the river. Thank you for your time. Cary

 
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Patricia Rashmawi - Trojan Technologies

Estimado Willy,

I have recently been forwarded your request for potable water treatment and have read the July 16th article on the incident in Costa Rica.

I work at Trojan Technologies Inc. in Canada, a UV provider for the treatment of water and wastewater, in charge of Latin America municipal
water and municipal wastewater projects. My collegue Bruce Laing ([email protected]) manages residential water projects. Since I am a
native of Chile, we may communicate in Spanish if you wish.

Kindly contact me at [email protected] or Bruce Laing, so that we can better evaluate the current needs and possibly propose some
solutions.

De ante mano muchas gracias y saludos,
Patricia Rashmawi
Trojan Technologies Inc.
 
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