Laser alignment is an essential component of a proactive maintenance strategy for rotating machines. This practical guide provides information and guidelines for the implementation of good shaft alignment of directly coupled rotating equipment including terminology, alignment methods, troubleshooting soft foot, causes of machine breakdown and related case studies.

Low-head, shallow-bed, traveling bridge sand filtration systems (Figure 1) have been used worldwide, including the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, dating back to the 1970s for tertiary reduction of suspended solids. After decades of operation, many of these tertiary filtration systems have reached their effective life and are facing performance and operational issues such as diminished hydraulic capacity, excessive backwash rates and media loss. Short circuiting due to media clogging, fouling of the porous plates and deterioration of the plate seals can also produce deterioration in the operational efficiency. In addition, many plants require additional filtration capacity but lack the site space to install additional basins.

There are thieves among us. Stealing water through meter tamper, meter removal, or by replacing the meter in reverse to subtract register totalization. If your customer reversed their water meter for weeks would you know about it? How many years might go by, particularly with an indoor meter before the theft is discovered? According to a 2011 AWWA Water Loss Control Benchmarking study based on 21 utilities from across the United States, Real Water Losses is on average 63 USG per connection per day. Overall, non-revenue water (NRW) approaches 23% of all water by volume. Learn how one utility is aggressively addressing NRW without the expense and complexity of fixed network technology using a convention yet highly effective drive-by AMR solution.

The city of St. Helens, Oregon, and the town’s major industry, Boise Paper, share the wastewater treatment plant as well as the NPDES permit. To meet their goal of cost effective operation, officials installed solar-powered circulation mixers from SolarBee, Inc. and cut aeration runtime costs more than 50 percent. As a result of the initiative, the City of St. Helens received an Oregon Leaders Award for industrial energy efficiency.

Even where fine screens are installed in the headworks of wastewater treatment plants, some debris will always end up in the sludge. Plastic parts and fibrous materials can severely disturb the operation of thickeners, digesters and dryers. Such solids impair the operation of pumps, heat exchangers, mixers, dewatering systems, pelletizers, etc. Hair and fibers often lead to the formation of tresses and grease balls. Where biosolids are land applied, plastic parts should be removed.

Such undesired solids should be removed from the sludge before causing problems in downstream processes and machines. Grinders might reduce the issues but they do not remove disturbing solids and are high in maintenance. Only screens can effectively remove debris from sludge in industrial processes. Excellent dewatering and compaction of the removed material is a huge advantage because it ensures a clean and safe environment and volume reduction. Sludge screens should be entirely enclosed for odor control.

Holden Beach, located on a barrier island along the Atlantic coast, has sandy soil, high groundwater, and flat terrain.  This primarily resort community was experiencing problems associated with septic tanks and failing drain fields and saw removing the onsite systems as a step towards a cleaner environment.

The decision to install vacuum sewers in Holden Beach was based primarily on these AIRVAC benefits: ease of installation, O&M simplification and safety, storm survivability, and environmental protection.

The new AIRVAC vacuum sewer system in Holden Beach supports the town’s goal of environmental stewardship by providing a closed system that prevents sewer overflows and eliminates infiltration and inflow.

Solving odor problems in wastewater treatment ponds should begin with a few investigative questions: How was the pond designed? Has the operation of the pond changed over the years? What is the purpose and operational theory of each pond, and have ponds been added or closed? Why are odors apparent on some days and not others? Understanding these “hows” and “whys” will provide clues to successfully solving odor problems in a variety of wastewater treatment plants.

Water facilities manage an essential resource.  Protecting those resources and protecting against misuse of materials used in the related processes is critical.  Many guidelines have been released about what security measures should be considered when protecting such facilities.  However, the details involved with making these measures a reality are often missing.  Whether you are security professional trying to secure the physical assets of your company, or a consultant / integrator helping that security professional, knowing a few key tips can go a long ways in ensuring the implementation meets the objective.  This paper presents 7 camera tips to consider as you begin to roll out your new security measures, or review your existing ones.  

To prevent water aging and breakdown of disinfection chemicals, municipal water system operators have tended to rely on normal cycling of water in and out of the tank.  However, this “passive” mixing” is often not enough to prevent temperature stratification and its associated problems.  An alternate solution is continuous, active mixing.  When combined with periodic chemical boosts, continuous, active mixing has been shown to eliminate sampling inconsistencies, thermal stratification and water aging.