A pilot program is demonstrating the benefits of point-of-entry (POE) treatment and UV disinfection to bring affordable, safe drinking water to the First Nation community of Alderville, Ontario.
The project, led by the Canadian unit of Arcadis, an international engineering design consultancy firm based in the Netherlands, provides a complete multi-barrier POE water treatment system for each of the 33 homes in the community to improve water quality and protect residents from waterborne pathogens.
The treatment systems are designed to produce potable water that meets Ontario drinking water standards. Each residential POE system is installed outside of the home in an insulated, heated enclosure that combines water softening and filtration with an easy-to-operate Hallett UV disinfection system. A private well provides source water at each home, but water quality varies with groundwater levels, soil conditions, and mineral hardness.
The POE approach eliminates the need to build a central treatment plant and a network of distribution pipes to serve the entire community. The installation of distribution pipes would have added significant economic and engineering challenges to this project since many of the homes are separated by several kilometres.
“We selected UV Pure Hallett systems for this project because they are simple to use, require very little maintenance and are certified to the NSF/ANSI 55 Class A standard. The automatic cleaning system has prevented buildup of minerals on the quartz sleeves, which means we haven’t had to perform any manual cleanings in over a year of operation.”
~ Yousry Hamdy, Manager of Water and Wastewater for Arcadis Canada
Annual lamp changes are the only maintenance that the operator has performed on the systems since commissioning in October 2015. The Hallett systems are also equipped with 4-20 mA monitoring and smart sensors that provide continuous logging of UV intensity, net UV transmittance, and dose. Alarms notify the local operator and shut down the system to prevent residents from using the water.