Evoqua selected by Alderson, W.Va., to enhance solids settling performance

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Evoqua Water Technologies has been selected by Alderson, W.Va., to supply 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.

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.

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.

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.

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