Alexandria, VA -- The Water Environment Federation (WEF) today welcomed the release of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) draft guidance on blending.

"The Federation is pleased that EPA is providing national guidance on blending at municipal wastewater treatment plants during wet weather, said WEF President Lawrence P. Jaworski. "Blending is a longstanding, sensible practice used to manage high flow events at wastewater treatment plants while maintaining compliance with NPDES Permit limits. EPA's guidance will support local governments in planning and operating wastewater facilities which provide environmentally sound and cost effective treatment during a variety of conditions, leading to improvements in water quality."

The majority of Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) in the United States today are biological systems designed to adjust to average daily loads and flows. The current systems are not technically capable of effectively treating high quantity/low concentration flows during peak wet weather, which results in lower treatment efficiencies.

WEF supports approaches that maximize the cost effective treatment of wastewater flows and has encouraged the EPA to interpret Clean Water Act requirements to allow for maximum treatment, including a blending alternative that is nationally accepted and consistently applied and enforced. The proposed guidance will likely support POTWs in maximizing use of treatment facilities to provide a higher level of treatment for more flow and improve the quality of effluent.

The Federation appreciates the efforts of the U.S. EPA's Office of Water and EPA Regions in developing national blending guidance and while WEF endorses the blending policy in concept, the Federation will submit detailed comments to EPA on the draft guidance and its implementation. "Implementation of this guidance will depend on use of best practices for treatment plant planning, design, construction and operation. WEF looks forward to working with EPA in articulating these practices and ensuring that they are understood by all involved," furthered Jaworski.

For additional information about blending and other clean water issues, visit the WEF website at www.wef.org

WATERTOWN, MA. -- Ionics, Incorporated (NYSE: ION) announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ecolochem, Inc. and its affiliated companies for $200 million in cash and approximately 4.91 million shares of Ionics common stock. Based on the 30 trading days' average closing stock price ended November 17, 2003, the stock portion of the consideration would be valued at $138 million.

Ecolochem, a privately held company headquartered in Norfolk, VA, is a leading provider of emergency, short and long-term mobile water treatment services to the power, petrochemical and other industries. This transaction is expected to significantly augment Ionics' existing capabilities and result in a global water technology company with pro forma projected 2004 combined revenues of approximately $460 million.

Ecolochem had revenue, EBITDA, and operating income of approximately $109, $40, and $28 million, respectively, for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2003.

"This acquisition fits well with our strategy of building our recurring revenue business. Ecolochem has built a large and loyal customer base over its long history through innovation and outstanding customer service," said Douglas Brown, Chief Executive Officer of Ionics. "We believe Ecolochem is well-positioned to benefit from the market trend towards outsourcing water services, particularly in the power industry."

Ecolochem shareholders will be entitled to name two additional directors to Ionics' existing nine-member board. Lyman B. Dickerson, President of Ecolochem, will be one of the new directors. Mr. Dickerson will also continue to run the Ecolochem business and will be named Vice President of Ionics' Water Systems Division.

"We are excited about the opportunity to team up with Ionics, a technology leader in the industry with a long term commitment to customer satisfaction," said Mr. Dickerson. "We expect to continue our current operational and market initiatives, and realize substantial synergies through our combination with Ionics."

Source:  http://www.ionics.com/

A patented, true technical innovation, the new “Plus3 System”, is the highlight of the Primus 208 pump range. This metering pump is especially designed for dosing very small volumes of chemicals that easily evaporate during pumping, like sodium hypochlorite. The pump “pre-vents” the gas and thus prevents likelihood of gas build up in the pumping chamber.

All other designs try to relieve the gas once it has built up between the pump’s suction and discharge valves. Such styles are all high maintenance and failure prone designs. Plus3, however, “pre-vents” the problem rather than attempting to cure it after the fact.

Provides Simultaneous Dosing, Deaeration and Calibration

Primus 208 is not a solenoid pump but a motor driven pump for quieter, longer life. The new “Plus3-System”is a reliable, trouble-free and precise dosing pump. An easy-to-handle calibrating system is integrated in the liquid end for exact adjustment of very low flow ranges. Adding to the advantages, the integrated reservoir in the liquid end allows for the chemical supply container to be exchanged while the metering pump continues to operate.

Alldos is an innovative supplier of high-quality products and services in the environmental technology and water treatment sectors. We develop, manufacture and market dosing pumps, disinfection systems, dosing systems as well as the associated measuring and control technology for these sectors. Using our knowledge of the markets and processes, we possess the ability to adapt to customer requirements.

Source:  http://www.alldos.com/

People post their requests for help and offer their suggestions to others in our open forum.

Ms. McMahan wants to know more contact stabilization:

When should contact stabilization be considered?

The plant I work at is in ext. aeration right now and we suffer from solids washout with high flows ( we can handle 0.5 mgd max.)  Should I change to contact stabilization or is ext. aeration what I need during high flows ?  (Click here to post a reply)

Thanks
Patricia McMahan
City of Glendale, OR
luwanna1@ccountry.com

Mr. Tremblay needs a pH control system:

Can anyone recommend a supplier in MIAMI that could assemble and start a pH control system?  We have a new facility starting up and the drawings are complete and the equipment has been specd out.

We need someone to come and do the plumbing, electrical and start up.
(Click here to post a reply)

Please let me know,
Tom Tremblay
ttrembla@nch.com

Help Forum:  Share your expertise with others in our Help Forum.

Sales Rep or Dealer for Polyethylene Tanks Wanted

We are a small and growing company, we sell polyethylene tanks, valves and fittings, and pumps. we manufacture liquid handling equipment, and we do plastic and metal fabrication.

We are interested in working with independent, commission only sales reps or dealers to help market our products. Our line of tanks include: vertical tanks from 50 gallon up to 16,000 gallon, horizontal tanks from 35 to 4,000 gallon, cone bottoms up to 12,000 gallon and underground water or septic tanks up to 1,500 gallon. We represent three manufactures of poly tanks giving us many shipping locations across the USA.

Contact Jeff Grant: jgrant@liquidhandlingsolutions.com

The Job Fair:  A free service of Water and Wastewater.com.  You can post job opening for managers, engineers, sales, reps or other talented people you need. ...Or one can post their resume for companies who are looking to add talented people to their staff.

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Water and Wastewater Newsletter
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Water and Wastewater Newsletter is a 100% opt-in e-mail list of information for the water and wastewater treatment professional.  Do you have company news, a new product, new service or other information you would like to share with our subscribers?  Please submit articles via e-mail, only to:  news@waterandwastewater.com

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This week's photo is of the floor of a bolted-steel tank floor while aeration piping is being installed.  Columbian-TecTank manufacturers bolted tanks coated carbon steel, aluminum and stainless steel.  They serve markets around the world and have tanks in over 100 countries.

Submitted by Tom Renich of Columbian-TecTank  

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