Dec. 18, 2000—This summer, the Greenville (SC) Water System began operating the largest U.S. application of Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) technology for treating drinking water � the Black & Veatch-designed 75 million gal/day, $55 million Table Rock and North Saluda Water Treatment Plant.
More commonly used for wastewater treatment, DAF is extremely effective at removing low-density organic particles, such as algae, which was one of the challenges at Greenville. Other benefits of DAF include a smaller footprint and lower associated costs.
Until the EPA�s Surface Water Treatment Rule mandated filtration in 1989, Greenville�s water from high-quality reservoirs had been disinfected but not filtered.
DAF was selected as a pretreatment step because of concerns about filters clogging during algae blooms and also because research shows that DAF treatment provides for the effective removal of Cryptosporidium oocysts.
Black & Veatch has implemented DAF and Counter Current DAF/Filtration (COCODAFF�) technology in installations worldwide.
