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Ixom Watercare has unique application and equipment manufacturing expertise in the sphere of disinfection by-products (DBPs) including prevention, mitigation and removal strategies from the water treatment plant throughout distribution.
We put together this special presentation to explore and discuss a variety of strategies and technology options to ensure DBP compliance throughout a water system. It is ~30-40 minute in length and is designed for use in trainings, lunch & learns, conferences and may be eligible for continuing education (CE) credit. We think you will find the information valuable for you and your organization. Please see the quick overview and outline...
Be sure to drop by and say hi to the Ixom Watercare Team at Booth 4741 or if you'd prefer, contact us to make an appointment in advance to discuss your water quality needs and challenges.
The following is an interview with Greg Alexander, General Manager of Rayburn Country Municipal Utility District (RCMUD) in Jasper County, Texas.
Can you tell us a little bit about you, your organization and your water system?
My name is Greg Alexander and I am the General Manager for Rayburn Country Municipal Utility District (RCMUD). I have been working here for 22 years.
We provide water and sewer services for over 1000 customers throughout Jasper County, Texas. We have 55 miles of sewer line, 50 miles of water line, and two groundwater wells. We are considering the addition of a third well due to the growth of tourism in the area.
What were your initial steps to reduce THMs?
Years ago, RCMUD and the RCMUD Board worked with a project engineer to find options for reducing THMs. Cost was a...
How lift station wet well mixing helped save the day against fats, oil and grease.
The following is an interview with Billy Harp, Public Works Director for Berryville, Arkansas.
Can you tell us a little bit about you, your organization and your water system?
My name is Billy Harp and I am the Public Works Director for the City of Berryville, Arkansas. I have worked for the City of Berryville for almost 24 years and was promoted to the Director’s position in 2017. I worked mostly on the water side of the Public Works Department until 2017 but I had some knowledge of problems with our lift stations as well.
What were your initial tactics for controlling FOG (Fats, Oils, and Grease) in your lift stations?
One of my first priorities as Director was researching ways of controlling FOG in the City’s lift stations. We were using a...
The following is an interview with Devon Smith, PE of Underwood Engineers, a civil environmental consulting firm.
Can you give us a quick overview how the project started, and the organizations involved?
When we started up the Southern New Hampshire Regional Water project, evidence indicated nitrification was occuring in the system.
A task force was formed that included the State, Underwood Engineers, PHD’s and professors from University of New Hampshire, the Town of Derry and key water system operators and other consulting firms. We workshopped together how we wanted to address the nitrification situation.
Jim Malley of UNH found a case in New England that was similar to our problem. A water district had built a tremendous amount of water tanks to add fire suppression and as a result had too much storage which had an adverse impact on water quality. They found that by adding chlorine to storage tanks they could help mitigate nitrification by satisfying...
Above and beyond Customer Support in response to COVID-19
02/23/2022
In late 2021, Ixom Watercare's Onsite Service Team was awarded Ixom's Team Excellence Award for their efforts to support our customers during the early portion of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ixom Watercare's Onsite Services Team is responsible for traveling across the US and Canada to service, troubleshoot, and install our water treatment equipment that we manufacture at our Dickinson, North Dakota manufacturing facility. They are an elite group of people with a unique set of skills who travel on 3-week long trips to complete work our customers need. They work in areas that often require significant risk assessment and strict controls, including working at heights, in confined spaces, over water, and driving long distances. They also work with mechanical and electrical equipment that require lengthy training and more strict controls to ensure their own and our customers’ safety. On top of all this, they interact with our customers directly acting as the face of the company.
Everything Changed In March 2020
When the Coronavirus pandemic struck the United States in March 2020, Ixom Watercare took all our field technicians off the road and halted scheduling any new service itineraries. There were so many...
Information for Consulting Engineers, Water / Wastewater Treatment Facilities
As most everyone in the water industry knows by now, water and wastewater systems are about to get a much needed funding boost over the next 5 years due to the recent passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021.
The following is a quick breakdown of relevant funding designations as it pertains to available Ixom Watercare solutions.
Relevant IIJA Funding Opportunities
$23.5 billion in funding will be made available through the existing Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and the Cleanwater State Revolving Fund. 50% of this funding (~$11 billion) are to consist of grants and/or principal forgiveness loans.
Another $9 billion in grants are designated to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other...
Active mixing is one of the best and easiest strategies to improve and maintain water quality in your drinking water storage tanks. The following are some key concepts to help you understand what may happen to chlorine residuals immediately after active mixing is introduced.
The Unmixed Tank Condition
Without an active mixer in the tank, water quality is dependent on incidental mixing caused by regular tank cycling between high and low levels. Sometimes deep draw downs or a system of inlet / outlet check valves have been employed in an effort to improve mixing. Neither of these strategies are very...
There are more than 50,000 municipal water systems in the United States and most of these systems rely on water towers, above-ground, and below-ground tanks to store their treated potable water. Many operators rely on mixing via normal cycling of water in and out of the tank to limit water age and deterioration of disinfectant chemicals.
This reliance on “passive mixing” is not enough in most cases to prevent thermal stratification, which can lead to a drop in residual chlorine and a resultant growth of bacteria.
When bacteria contamination occurs in a tank, a common response is to set the tank for deep drawdown and in extreme cases, completely drain, flush, and refill the tank. Not only is this strategy a big waste of water resources, it also raises cost for labor and chemicals.
When continuous mechanical mixing is combined with frequent sampling & periodic chlorine boosting (when needed), water quality is maintained and less disinfectant is required. This paper will address...
For those of us who live in “cold country" where winter temperatures consistently drop below freezing, ice in your potable water storage tanks is an ever-present threat. Serious tank damage and serious repair costs can occur if tank ice is not addressed.
Let’s take a quick look at one system where tank ice became a serious predicament...
Ixom has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of prominent water industry leader Marc Roehl as Executive Vice President, Watercare, based in the United States.
Mr. Roehl is an executive with more than 25 years of experience in the water and wastewater treatment sector, with a focus on industrial and municipal markets. He is currently an active board member of the global Water Council and is a member of the Water Environment Federation.
Managing Director and CEO of Ixom, David Head, said of the appointment “I am delighted to announce that Marc has joined the Ixom executive team. The growth of Ixom’s business in new North American markets is an important part of our global expansion strategy that also includes a focus on Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. It’s therefore fitting we have a person of Marc’s credentials in this key US-based global leadership position.”
Mr. Roehl is energized to deal with what lies ahead in the...
We want to quickly update you regarding Ixom’s ongoing response to the escalation of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Ixom has had our CEO-led Crisis Team in place for six weeks (since the virus became known) and has two specialist sub committees working on mitigating potential impacts to supply and customers.
Ixom implemented our Pandemic Plan following the establishment of the Crisis Team, and immediate actions at that time included...
Ixom, a global leader in water treatment and pre-treatment, today finalised the acquisition Medora Environmental (Medora), a market leader in source water management solutions.
Expanding on Ixom’s strong water capabilities including Ground Water Treatment Plants, Water Treatment Systems and strong markets in Pre-Treatment Disinfection, Chlorination and associated products and PFAS removal, the investment in the United States business strengthens Ixom’s global source water management offering.
The acquisition will bring together two North American source water industry leaders with...
Medora Corporation has compiled two new reference guides to help you better understand lake vocabulary, processes and treatment options in laymen's terms. From alum applications to cyanobacteria blooms to hypolimnetic oxygenation to zooplankton to anything and everything inbetween, the "Lakes A to Z Help Guide" has it covered.
You’ve decided mixing is the next best strategy to easily improve the water quality in your system. Now it’s evaluation time. Here are a few simple considerations when sifting through your tank mixing options.
#1 Initial Mixer Cost.
Many of us make a purchasing decision based on initial cost alone. Cheaper often times means exactly that… cheap; however, more expensive doesn’t always equate to a better product either. There can be hidden costs like poor component life cycles and required maintenance that can actually turn a low initial cost into a higher overall life-cycle cost.
GS Series Tank Mixers balance cost, quality, and reliability to maximize the most mixing per dollars spent.
#2 Strength of Warranty.
A strong equipment warranty not only protects your investment, it can be thought of as another way to...
Note: The following is an excerpt from the article of the same name written by Mike Moeller and published in ServiceLine (February 2019 Edition), the official publication of the South Dakota Association of Rural Water Systems (SDARWS).
Why use a mixer? The main benefit of using a mixer is that it keeps your water in the tank fresh.
If you don’t have mixer when the tank fills the warm water that was in the tank rises to the top and the new fresh water that is cooler in temperature stays at the bottom causing stratification. When stratification occurs, and the warm water stays at the top it never really gets used, and the disinfectants in the warmer water tend to dissipate thus raising the chance for bacteria to form in the warmer water.
When you use a mixer, the water is kept at a uniform...
1) Trihalomethane (THM) removal is not one size fits all.
Make sure your system is properly evaluated.
Most systems have unique characteristics that must be accounted for from the start. Understanding how a given system works… volumes… fill rates… tank dimensions… inlet / outlet configurations… desired THM removal rates… are all critical for THM removal success. Sometimes you just can’t fit a square peg into a round hole and having the...
Many thanks and a sad farewell to our friend & colleague.
07/05/2018
We learned today that Dr. Ken Hudnell passed away, a very sad event for Medora Corporation. Ken was living in New Bern, North Carolina and spent the past two years fighting pancreatic cancer. Medora Corporation, the US, and the world lost a tireless researcher dedicated to improving health by reducing toxins caused by Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs, aka blue-green algae blooms) in fresh water.
Ken called Medora Corporation out of the blue in about mid-2007. He told me that cyanotoxins caused by HABs are making people sick all over the world, including in the US where 70% of the public gets its drinking water from surface sources. He said the cyanotoxins are building up in people, and cause various auto-immune diseases when some level of accumulated toxins occurs. He also said that there were several possible solutions: (a) stop the HABs from forming in lakes and drinking water reservoirs, or (b) spend billions updating water plants to remove toxins...
Duckweed in wastewater ponds can be tough to get rid of. A pond over run by duckweed can cause a host of processing problems that many people may not realize and it is in the best interest of any wastewater system to minimize duckweed impacts. No one method is a cure all for every application. Sometimes it takes a combination of strategies to keep duckweed at bay...
Many systems rely on deep draw downs, low tank levels, and flushing to break temperature stratification and keep trihalomethanes from becoming more of a problem.
This can prove useful for the short term but it isn’t a very reliable long term water quality solution. It can also leave your system seriously vulnerable in emergency situations such as...
SolarBee® Lake Circulators are a first in line treatment strategy for source raw water reservoirs.
08/29/2017
Loveland Water & Power (Loveland, Colorado) produced an amazing video detailing their mitigation strategies to combat taste and odor issues in their drinking water system. Medora Corporation & SolarBee® Lake Circulators are proud to be an important part of their efforts! Check out their video...
Mix Only Vs Mix-Ventilation Vs Spray Aeration Strategies
05/25/2017
There are many, many considerations to take into account when researching and implementing a trihalomethane (THM, TTHM) removal strategy for your drinking water system. It can all get very complex in a hurry.
For the sake of this blog article however, we are going to focus only on...
In most lagoons, sunlight causes a hard stratification at 12 to 18 inches of depth. The top water is warmer and thick algae populations are producing supersaturated dissolved oxygen (DO). The DO gasses off at the surface and is not readily available deeper in the pond for use by BOD-reducing bacteria.
Meanwhile new inflow water may be short-circuiting straight across the bottom of the pond. Short-circuiting makes actual detention much less than theoretical detention time. Without proper detention time, the water does not have time to experience a good BOD and ammonia reduction.
SolarBee® & GridBee® wastewater mixers from Medora Corporation can enhance or supplement your existing facultative lagoon system. Effective mixing often...
We received the below letter from one of our Customers to one of our Distributors. It's little things like this that let us know we are on the right track.
Improved wet well operation can have substantial savings in time and money. The less than two-month payback achieved in this case may be on the upper end of the scale but it's a great example of what can happen when reliable and effective mixing is added to wastewater lift stations. We included the letter in it's entirety...
Setting The Record Straight Against Blatant Misinformation
01/30/2017
If there is one thing we’ve learned from the Jordan Lake project, there are great people working on behalf of the State of North Carolina from NC DEQ to the Army Corp Of Engineers to the State Legislative Assembly and everywhere in-between. Among all these dedicated players including Medora Corporation, the "say all end all" was to bring cost effective real world solutions to the table for the betterment of Jordan Lake.
If there was a second thing we learned, it’s that the NC Media has no problem getting the facts wrong in favor of agenda driven drama & politics.
Jordan Lake started and ended as a Demonstration Project to study the effects of circulation...
GridBee® SN Series Spray Aeration Systems For Potable Water Storage Tanks
01/19/2017
Practical real-world experiences combined with on-going innovation are the cornerstones for all Medora Corporation THM (trihalomethane) and other VOC (volatile organic compound) spray aeration removal systems. We have hundreds of successful SN Series Systems currently in use and are continuously conducting internal THM removal tests to provide the best product and result for our Customers.
The THM removal efficiency curve is dependent on a number of factors. Proper consideration and evaluation of these factors ensures the system is designed to...
The media almost always gets the story wrong about effective methods to eliminate cyanobacteria blooms in lakes (otherwise known as blue-green algae or harmful algal blooms (HABs). The actual track records for the most talked-about methods are astoundingly poor, about “0 wins” vs “5000 losses” since the U.S. Clean Water Act was passed in 1970.
Usually the articles talk about controlling HABs by keeping vital nutrients out of the lake, phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) being the prime culprits.
But that never works.
It takes so little P or N to create a HAB plus “new" P and N constantly get into the water from runoff, atmospheric deposition, ground water infiltration, and organic decomposition & recycling within the lake.
Methods that fail virtually every time to control HABs are...
Last week was our annual “Crew Week”. We hold it at the beginning of every year and it’s the only time when we are able to bring the entire Medora Transport & Service Crew together in one place. We train. We update. We listen. These are the guys that take care of our Customers and they tell us like it is.
Complete life cycle support is such an important aspect for any successful company. A company needs to...
We are just about to the shortest day of the year and after the holiday season, many of our thoughts will drift toward the return of spring and the return to the lake.
We are sometimes asked about the potential for accidents and owner liability regarding SolarBee® circulators on lakes. Since 2002 over 1000 SolarBees have been installed in lakes that have water skiing courses, wake boarding contests, windsurfing lessons, sailing courses, rowing courses, heavy fishing activity, jet skis, and even seaplane landing areas. There have been no significant accidents or liability to any lake stakeholder and SolarBees have been installed in lakes that have water skiing courses, wake boarding contests...
Disinfection By-Products (DBPs) can be very difficult to remove in certain areas of a water system especially dead-end & low demand areas where water can sit for an extended period of time. In the case of trihalomethanes (THMs), the longer water sits, the more THM formation potential there is. Many systems have had no other alternative but to flush out the old water and replace with more freshly treated resources in order to achieve compliance. Overall, flushing is more prevalent than one may think and is even promoted as a best practice by some governmental agencies.
To be fair, we divide flushing into two categories...
Great Customer Reviews And A Free Trial Offer For Every City
11/03/2016
The GridBee® AP500 wet well mixer for lift stations officially launched in April 2015. From its very first installation it became clear this little mixer had some huge benefits in the world of lift station wet wells. Even then we didn’t have a true picture until bits and pieces of success story after success story started to make it our way. We thought we’d share a couple of them with you.
An end to weekly cleaning...
One Customer installed their first GridBee® AP500 system in a lift station wet well that required a vac truck to pump out the grease layer once per week. They were hoping to save some cost by...
Distribution methods may be ignoring up to half the potential phosphorus loading in your lake.
10/28/2016
Since 2012, we have been working with stakeholders at a high value 300-acre lake in the US. They have been considering putting in SolarBee® Lake Circulators to control toxic blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) blooms. So far however, they have opted to apply aluminum sulfate (alum) in an effort to tie up phosphorus at the sediment (thus preventing "internal loading” or recycling of phosphorus).
This summer we received another call from them. Despite repeated applications of alum...
We hear this question all the time (or alternate versions such as, “Do you need the tank dry for deployment?”) For many of our Customers, the answer is a welcomed surprise...
When water flows through a defined area such as a pipe or the inlet / outlet port of a pump, the flow rate is simply the measurement of how much water passes through an "imaginary plane" in a certain amount of time. This method of defining flow rate is so basic that it is adopted by engineers and equipment manufacturers everywhere for virtually all products in the water industry including pumps, mixers, valves, filters, meters, nozzles, and many other types of equipment.
The trouble with flow rates for mixers in potable water storage tanks
Active mixers in municipal water storage tanks are...
First off, providing a complete mix for your potable water storage tanks should be a 100% best practice for every tank all the time. Mixing ensures that no water gets “old” and that chlorine from new water entering the tank is spread throughout the whole tank. It not only solves water quality and treatment problems, mixing helps prevent problems. Since proactive mixing for your tanks can alleviate a lot of future headaches, this question begs to be asked,
“Which mixing strategy is better, Active or Passive?”
It never fails… The battle of Summer and Fall happens every year right on or around Labor Day weekend in North Dakota. And most times, Fall wins in quick fashion. Moving toward October, the brisk shiver of cooler temperatures serve as an all too familiar reminder that it won’t be too long before the long prairie winter sets in.
We often joke that the best thing about a North Dakota winter is the tap water comes out refreshing and icy cold. For those of us in the water business, that ice cold water represents the lingering threat of tank ice formation. And we know, any substantial amount of ice in a storage tank can spell bad news.
A lot of factors come into play to determine whether a tank will form ice or not, the most obvious of which being “how cold and for how long”. You can’t control the weather but there are steps you can take to help any situation you find yourself in.
Is the “settled” extreme pushing the science out of balance?
09/29/2016
In August 2016, Environmental Science & Technology published an article about preventing or reducing harmful algae blooms in freshwater lakes. "Reducing Phosphorus to Curb Lake Eutrophication is a Success” was co-written by several lake scientists from the United States & Canada with D. Schindler (Edmonton, Alberta) as the lead author. (read & download the article here)
The article seems to say that:
1) Phosphorus is the the only nutrient that matters to control cyanobacteria harmful algae bloom (HABs).
2) Any further discussion of nitrogen as a nutrient in this industry is a waste of time.
3) Given enough time (maybe 10-30 years), watershed protection to reduce phosphorus infow to lakes will stop cyanobacteria blooms.
The article lists about 35 lakes in the world as evidence to support the claim that phosphorus reduction can “recover" a lake. There is not much discussion about point sources versus non-point sources in the article; but usually 90% of phosphorus inflow to lake is non-point source, so the clear implication is that watershed protection is the only way to restore a lake.
Schindler has been saying for years that HABs are only about phosphorus; whereas, Hans Paerl (North Carolina, USA) says sometimes HABs are caused by excess phosphorus, and/or excess nitrogen, and/or other factors. This article seemed to be a direct slam to Paerl continuing the rivalry between the two, Schindler and Paerl.
Sometimes you read something and you just can’t help having a smile on your face. The below customer email is posted in its entirety save a few redacted names to protect their location and identity. This project was about using SolarBees to solve a cyanobacteria problem in a lake in the southeast United States.
"Mr. XXXXX,
I would be more than happy to give a positive reference and be a part of the case study for SolarBee. I have talked with several municipalities from the surrounding area about the benefits SolarBee has provided to us.
Our Medora Transport Service & Delivery Technicians pack on a lot of miles while taking care of our Customers across the United States & Canada (they logged over 532,000 miles last year alone!). Our Regional Sales Teams also travel all over the country making presentations and visiting with our Customers & potential Customers alike.
With so many miles and so much time on the road, driving safety for our employees is a major concern.
I’d like to talk about how crew guys spend their Saturdays on the road. On this particular Saturday, we met at the truck at 8AM after an overcrowded continental breakfast.
74 miles to go through the winding hills of Virginia into West Virginia.
Time to arrival: two hours fourteen minutes.
Our service stop is a West Virginia wastewater treatment pond with three machines and seven test points. It’s a beautiful fall drive with the changing colors of the leaves on a two-lane highway that winds through the Appalachian Mountains.
We arrive around 10:20AM with an outside temperature of only 45 degrees. The good thing is we can see all three machines are running great so this should go smooth.
Can you tell us a little bit about you, your organization and your water system?
Can you tell us a little bit about you, your organization and your water system?
The following is an interview with Devon Smith, PE of Underwood Engineers, a civil environmental consulting firm.
Active mixing is one of the best and easiest strategies to improve and maintain water quality in your drinking water storage tanks. The following are some key concepts to help you understand what may happen to chlorine residuals immediately after active mixing is introduced.
For those of us who live in “cold country" where winter temperatures consistently drop below freezing, ice in your potable water storage tanks is an ever-present threat. Serious tank damage and serious repair costs can occur if tank ice is not addressed.
Ixom has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of prominent water industry leader Marc Roehl as Executive Vice President, Watercare, based in the United States.
Note: The following is an excerpt from the article of the same name written by Mike Moeller and published in ServiceLine (February 2019 Edition), the official publication of the South Dakota Association of Rural Water Systems (SDARWS).
We learned today that Dr. Ken Hudnell passed away, a very sad event for Medora Corporation. Ken was living in New Bern, North Carolina and spent the past two years fighting pancreatic cancer. Medora Corporation, the US, and the world lost a tireless researcher dedicated to improving health by reducing toxins caused by Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs, aka blue-green algae blooms) in fresh water.
In most lagoons, sunlight causes a hard stratification at 12 to 18 inches of depth. The top water is warmer and thick algae populations are producing supersaturated dissolved oxygen (DO). The DO gasses off at the surface and is not readily available deeper in the pond for use by BOD-reducing bacteria.
We received the below letter from one of our Customers to one of our Distributors. It's little things like this that let us know we are on the right track.
Disinfection By-Products (DBPs) can be very difficult to remove in certain areas of a water system especially dead-end & low demand areas where water can sit for an extended period of time. In the case of 
The GridBee® AP500 wet well mixer for lift stations officially launched in April 2015. From its very first installation it became clear this little mixer had some huge benefits in the world of lift station wet wells. Even then we didn’t have a true picture until bits and pieces of success story after success story started to make it our way. We thought we’d share a couple of them with you.
Since 2012, we have been working with stakeholders at a high value 300-acre lake in the US. They have been considering putting in SolarBee® Lake Circulators to control toxic blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) blooms. So far however, they have opted to apply aluminum sulfate (alum) in an effort to tie up phosphorus at the sediment (thus preventing "internal loading” or recycling of phosphorus).
It never fails… The battle of Summer and Fall happens every year right on or around Labor Day weekend in North Dakota. And most times, Fall wins in quick fashion. Moving toward October, the brisk shiver of cooler temperatures serve as an all too familiar reminder that it won’t be too long before the long prairie winter sets in.
Our Medora Transport Service & Delivery Technicians pack on a lot of miles while taking care of our Customers across the United States & Canada (they logged over 532,000 miles last year alone!). Our Regional Sales Teams also travel all over the country making presentations and visiting with our Customers & potential Customers alike.
I’d like to talk about how crew guys spend their Saturdays on the road. On this particular Saturday, we met at the truck at 8AM after an overcrowded continental breakfast.