Filtration, conservation may be keys to bay conundrum
By ALISSA EATON - aeaton@sungazette.comArticle Photos
The company, located out of Winfield, was awarded a contract to provide a denitrification filter for a water reuse demonstration project in Cape May County, New Jersey.
Harold Neff, chief engineer, and Frank Mazzullo, project manager for Wagner Fluid Systems, are hopeful these types of filtration systems will be able to help municipalities of the area and all around the country too.
The denitrification system will allow Cape May County to reuse “secondary effluent” that has had nitrogen and suspended solids removed, Neff said.
This will save valuable ground water from being used for non-potable uses.
The county will be able to reuse the treated water to clean zoo cages and floors, irrigate lawns, shrubs and trees, flush water for toilets and other non-potable reasons.
Cape May County has a park and a zoo near their treatment plant and is going to reuse the water mainly at those places.
“They are taking treated water and are going to use it for cleaning floors at the zoo and flushing toilets,” Harold Neff, chief engineer at the company, said.
Neff developed and patented the treatment process used by this system in the mid 1970s. The system was developed to solve the problem of nitrate contamination of the ground water in coastal states where aquifers are shallow, he said.
In the 60’s and 80’s, the company made numerous units for Suffolk County, New York where there are few surface streams to accept effluent discharges and the treated effluent had been discharged into the soil.
The ground water was used as drinking water, and had nitrate nitrogen levels above source drinking water limits. “Nitrate Nitrogen in drinking water has been linked to methemoglobinemia in infants and other health issues,” Neff said.
Methemoglobinemia is a blood disease characterized by the presence of a higher than normal level of methemoglobin in the blood, which can lead to anemia.
The unit for Cape May County consists of four filter cells in a 14- by 58-foot steel structure manufactured by A&M Metal Specialties Inc.
Wagner Fluid Systems subcontracted smaller systems to A&M over the years, but because it obtained the Darling Value facility in Williamsport, that has allowed them to fabricate larger systems in their shop year-round, Neff said.
The filtration systems will help that county in New Jersey comply with the Chesapeake Bay Initiative, which requires water-treatment plants in the bay’s watershed to reduce the emission of pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus.
“Nutrients and sediment enter the bay are creating abnormal aquatic growth limiting the penetration of sunlight and adversely impacting the populations on desirable aquatic life, notably the blue crab in Chesapeake waters,” Neff said.
Each filtration system and steel structure that houses it is custom built, and can be adapted to remove other nutrients as well.
Neff said these systems could absolutely help the municipalities of the area that need to comply with the initiative, and said he is currently in negotiations with several of them, but declined to name which one it was.
The demonstration project at Cape May is funded in part by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and The Cape May County Municipal Utilities Authority.
Engineering design and oversight is provided by Metcalf & Eddy Inc., a consulting firm in water and waste water treatment technology.
While such filters are only one of the company’s products, the market is one of the most “active” in which the company participates, according to Neff.
“We also make filters for drinking water facilities as well,” Neff said. Neff said one of the company’s recent potable water treatment systems includes four arsenic absorption units for St. Michael’s, Md., a historic town on the Chesapeake Bay.
Neff explained the units strip arsenic .
Wagner Fluid Systems is a RAM Industrial Services Company.
