LOVELAND, CO, Nov. 28, 2011 -- The City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Wastewater Treatment Facility won Hach's See the BIG Picture Fan Favorite voting with more than 28,000 votes and will receive $40,000 in Hach equipment to help improve the facility.
"This year's entries were very creative," Kurt Tyler, VP of Marketing for Hach said. "It's no question that Grand Rapids and the other winners really value what seeing the BIG picture means for their facilities."
The City of Grand Rapids competed against eight other plants for the fan favorite prize. Voting was held through http://www.hachbigpicture.com/vote and saw over 65,000 votes between September and November 13th.
The City of Grand Rapids Wastewater Treatment Plant treats an average of 49 MGD from a collection system which includes over 1000 miles of maintained sewer pipe. Obtaining data in a timely manner is critical for the continuous optimization of their wastewater treatment facility, and this is where the $40,000 in Hach equipment will go to serve the plant's 262,000 customers.
The contest, which began on April 19, offered one municipal and one industrial wastewater treatment plant the chance to receive a grand prize of $50,000 in free Hach equipment (totaling $100,000 in free equipment) by creating a video or PowerPoint explaining how new equipment could improve their treatment process. J. McBride, Environmental Engineer at Arkema Inc. and winner of the industrial grand prize package shared her experience of the contest.
"Hach's Big Picture contest allowed us to creatively harness an opportunity and envision the possibilities that would develop with a BioTector. By enabling continuous monitoring of total organic carbon (TOC) loading throughout the process, variability becomes more manageable, resulting in a more efficient treatment process. Additionally, the contest helped boost morale in a tough economic climate by giving a cross-functional team the chance to experience a unique and entertaining way to improve operations at our plant. We are very appreciative! Thank you!"
Fan favorite voting began after the grand prize winners were announced at WEF Technical Exhibition and Conference in October.
The contest is designed to help municipal wastewater treatment plants and industrial sites understand the benefits of increasing their nutrient monitoring to optimize their nitrogen and phosphorus removal.
More frequent monitoring will help plants "See the BIG Picture" of their operations, thereby decreasing expensive chemical and energy costs while helping address one of the most sensitive environmental issues in wastewater treatment. Currently most plants only do periodic, required nutrient monitoring, so they're unable to adjust chemical dosing or aeration to the specific changes occurring in real-time.
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