EAST HILLS, NY (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Pall Corporation has been awarded two separate contracts for drinking water filtration systems in Colorado, the company announced on Aug. 10. Together, the contracts are worth $6.4 million. The first, a 12 million gallon per day (MGD) peak flow membrane filtration system was awarded by the City of Westminster, one of the state's largest cities. The second, a 5 MGD system expandable to 10 MGD is for the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District located in Edwards.
The new Pall systems will be used to treat surface waters, the primary source of municipal drinking water in the US. Water in lakes, rivers and reservoirs for example, is naturally contaminated by virus, bacteria and parasites. Pall's Aria(SM) brand membrane systems remove common pathogens and are powerful tools that help municipalities meet or exceed all current and proposed EPA standards governing drinking water quality.
The US Environmental Protection Agengy (EPA) has been tightening legislation governing drinking water quality with more stringent and far reaching standards expected to follow. While the regulations apply to larger communities, a recent White House press release makes it clear that the EPA wants all community water sources to be processed and measured against the same strict standards for safety and quality. These regulations are driving rapid change within the water industry and have created a $4 billion market opportunity for treatment technologies.
The US Centers for Disease Control estimates that nearly a million Americans become sick and a thousand die every year from drinking contaminated water. Those most at risk from waterborne contamination are the very young, the elderly and immunocompromised patients.
While massive outbreaks like the most recent one in Walkerton, Ontario or the now infamous Milwaukee, Wisconsin case, when 400,000 people were infected and over 100 died, make the press, the majority of illnesses occur in isolated incidents. While chlorination can "treat" water by killing certain pathogens, advanced membranes remove targeted pathogens including those not killed by chlorine and can prevent outbreaks of waterborne illnesses.
For more information, visit Pall's web site at http://www.pall.com/water.
