Instead of building conventional septic systems for 15 new town-homes, a developer has installed a state-of-the-art Aquapoint moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) treatment system with chemical-free ultraviolet disinfection to reduce nutrient loading and improve water quality for a sensitive bay in Cataumet, Massachusetts.
The Cataumet Wastewater Treatment Plant will also replace the existing septic system for a nearby marina, and has capacity to provide treatment for up to 65 neighbouring homes whose septic systems are suspected of contributing to poor water quality and algae blooms in the bay.
Treated effluent from the underground MBBR process tanks is pumped up to a small control building where the flow is split to two Hallett 30 systems for disinfection. The compact design and vertical installation of the Hallett systems was critical for maximizing the limited space in the control building. The Hallett systems handle flow up to 60 gpm (227 L/min) with UV transmittance (UVT) as low as 65%, and consistently achieve fecal coliform levels less than 1 MPN/100 mL—far below the regulated target level of 200 MPN/100 mL (where MPN is the most probable number of coliforms).
“Many Aquapoint systems are equipped with UV Pure disinfection technology, which has proven itself to be the most cost effective, reliable and simple to use UV system that we’ve come across. The automatic, self-cleaning system is very reliable in maintaining clarity in the quartz sleeve. We rarely, if ever, have to manually clean a quartz sleeve.”
~ Josh Lindell, President of Aquapoint
Aquapoint also operates and maintains many of these sites and says the UV Pure systems provide significant savings in time and cost of ongoing operation. UVT, UV intensity and dose are monitored continuously via 4-20 mA outputs that are connected to the PLC system. If any parameters are out of specification, the system automatically notifies the operator who can perform a quick diagnostic to identify and troubleshoot the problem.