Clean water is often taken for granted, but when public water supplies turn deadly, then everyone pays attention.  While everyone knows about the lead problem in Flint, lesser known was the outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease, which flourishes in hot tubs, water fountains, plumbing systems and water treatment cooling towers.  Water borne diseases like legionnaires are both deadly and difficult to detect, as there is no good test for the disease.  This makes water treatment so important to municipalities.

Since water cooling towers are still primary sources for water borne disease, treating the water is a top priority – and that can involve mix of chemicals, biocides to control bacteria and corrosion inhibitors to keep the water coolers from being destroyed.  There is no perfect solution to both killing bacteria and protecting water cooling towers, particularly since the bacteria can evolve immunity to the biocides.

New treatments involve electric currents to reduce the toxicity of treating water, and remotely monitoring towers with technology results in substantial savings and uses 28% less water than previous methods.  Data analytics plays a new role in creating cleaner water.  But so can ensuring that municipalities upgrade the systems that treat water and sewage within their own city limits.  Infrastructure reports are abysmal around the country with many municipalities working with pipelines and process that are decades past due for overhaul.

While many municipalities suffer from budget constraints, making needed upgrades can result in huge savings.  For example, the low pressure drop of Komax mixers translates into huge energy savings – over 90% — when compared with mechanical mixing.  When taken with a service life exceeding 30 years, municipalities can only come out ahead by upgrading long overdue processes.  A KomaxKlean-Wall Heat Exchanger can process sludge with less blockage, no cleaning and increased bacteriological activity will also ensure safe water treatment processes. The effort to produce clean water and treat sewage rests on having the best equipment.