• $1.8M contract with Clearwater, Fla., supplies five Hydro 'Grit King' units to improve performance at two wastewater treatment plants
PORTLAND, ME, Jan. 9, 2008 -- Hydro International, a leading provider of environmentally sustainable products and innovative solutions that control and treat stormwater, wastewater and combined sewer overflows, today announced the receipt of its largest contract for grit-removal systems ever -- a $1.8 million deal with the city of Clearwater, Fla.
Hydro will supply the Gulf Coast city with five Grit King® advanced hydrodynamic separator units to upgrade the grit-removal processes at two of Clearwater's three wastewater treatment plants. The 12-foot diameter Grit King units will replace the existing high-energy vortex grit removal systems at the plants.
The purchase came as part of a larger initiative to upgrade the headworks at Clearwater's Marshall Street and East Advanced Pollution Control Facilities.
"The city was looking for improved performance and increased reliability, and after conducting pilot testing with the Grit King units and development of a system design that could be retrofitted into the city's existing headworks, we determined that this solution more than meets the plants' needs," said Thomas Friedrich, P.E., at Jones Edmunds & Associates, of Tampa, Fla., the engineering firm representing the city.
During the design phase of the plant improvement project, Hydro drove a Grit King mobile pilot unit to Clearwater and participated in a head-to-head trial with one of the existing high-energy vortex systems at the Marshall Street plant. The data showed the Grit King removing up to 23 times the grit as the existing system.
The Grit King is an advanced hydrodynamic separator that augments gravitational forces to separate grit from water. It removes more grit than conventional systems, making it an economical choice for new or existing municipal or industrial wastewater applications. Because it has no moving parts and no external power source, the Grit King requires significantly less maintenance than conventional grit-removal systems.
"We are extremely proud the city of Clearwater has seen the value Hydro International's Grit King provides in terms of grit-removal efficiency," said Neil Raymond, Hydro's general manager of wastewater operations. "Grit that is not captured in the process degrades the machinery in a wastewater treatment plant at an alarming rate. Clearwater's investment in new equipment and new processes shows a level of foresight that will serve constituents well."
Hydro International, based in Portland, Maine, is a provider of environmentally sustainable products and innovative solutions that control and treat stormwater, wastewater and combined sewer overflows, utilizing award-winning advanced vortex and complementary technologies.
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