OAKVILLE, ON, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Zenon Environmental Inc. announced that the company today filed a patent infringement lawsuit against US Filter Corporation. Zenon is seeking damages and an injunction to stop the sale, manufacture and use of US Filter's MemJet and CFM-S products that infringe Zenon's intellectual property, protected by patents issued in the United States.

The lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, alleges that US Filter's MemJet and CMF-S immersed membrane products infringe Zenon's United States Patent Nos. 6,245,239 and 6,550,747 relating to the use of air cycling to keep membranes clean and its United States Patent No. 6,620 319 relating to membrane module configuration.

"The growing need for better, faster and cheaper water filtration and wastewater management solutions requires a steady stream of innovation," said Andrew Benedek, Chairman and CEO of Zenon. "While we welcome innovators to the market, Zenon has an obligation to protect the investment made in our technology by shareholders, partners and customers."

"Protecting innovation is something companies across industries do in order to ensure continued innovation," said Lisa Bolton, Zenon General Counsel. "Our industry is no different. We do not take this step lightly. But, we are confident in our decision to proceed with this lawsuit and will take action as necessary to protect our intellectual property."

Dr. Benedek added, "Zenon is dedicating our company to business as usual throughout the litigation process. We are successful because of our focus on developing, selling and supporting advanced immersed membrane technologies in the market. Customers will see no change in that regard."

Zenon is a world leader in providing advanced membrane products and services for water purification, wastewater treatment and water reuse to municipalities and industries worldwide. Its extensive R&D effort and investment over the years has resulted in the development of important innovations in membrane technology that has enabled Zenon to produce high quality membrane filtration systems.

Source: Zenon Environmental Inc.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.-- Oct. 7, 2003--The SI Utility Group, L.L.C., based in Arlington Heights, Illinois, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Envirosystems International, Inc., of Orlando, Florida.

Envirosystems operates more than 100 wastewater and drinking water facilities throughout Florida. With the acquisition, The SI Utility Group currently operates more than 280 wastewater, drinking water, and groundwater remediation systems in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, California, and Florida.

Concurrent with the acquisition, Klaus W. Voss, CEO of The SI Utility Group, welcomed Waylon Locklear, founder of the former Envirosystems, onto The SI Utility Group's management team. According to Mr. Voss, "The SI Group of companies welcomes the synergies, increased resources, and efficiencies enabled by the acquisition of Envirosystems' management and staff."

Headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois, The SI Utility Group is a boutique environmental services firm focused on growth through client service and strategic acquisition of companies with complimentary resources. For more information, contact The SI Group at (847) 956-8589.

Source:  http://www.thesigroup.com/

HARLEYSVILLE, Pa. -- Raymond J. De Hont, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Met-Pro Corporation, announced today that the Company has entered into an exclusive license agreement with BNF Aromatrix Pte. Ltd. to market, sell, manufacture and use AroBIOS, a biological process for the control of odorous gases, particularly from municipal wastewater treatment facilities.

The license agreement provides the Company's Duall Division with exclusive territorial rights for North, Central, and South America including the Caribbean area, as well as the Hawaiian Islands and all United States' territories.

The AroBIOS process was developed by Dr. Lawrence Koe, a world-renowned odor management expert and professor at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. The AroBIOS technology was among the first to be granted the Innovator Award by The Enterprise Challenge, a unit of Singapore's Prime Minister's Office, for its innovative work with bacteria to treat odorous sewage air. The AroBIOS process earned Dr. Koe the coveted Enterprise Challenge Shield award for the most outstanding innovation out of thirty-five nominated technologies.

The AroBIOS process has been proven and tested at several wastewater treatment plants. Unlike conventional gas scrubbers, the AroBIOS technology does not require the use and storage of chemicals making it a more environmentally friendly odor control method.

"This agreement illustrates Met-Pro's continuing efforts to constantly improve our product offerings to the customer," said De Hont. "We believe the AroBIOS biological process technology will not only strengthen Duall's already strong presence in the odor control market but will also become the system of choice for many customers who prefer the use of biotechnology."

About Met-Pro

Met-Pro Corporation, Harleysville, Pennsylvania, manufactures and sells product recovery and pollution control equipment for purification of air and liquids and fluid handling equipment for corrosive, abrasive and high temperature liquids. With ten divisions and five subsidiaries, the company, established in 1966, provides products to residential, commercial, industrial and municipal markets that include, but are not limited to, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, petrochemicals, water and aquariums.

Source:  http://www.met-pro.com/

DENVER, CO – October 7, 2003 – During a recent meeting of water supply professionals from Utah and Idaho held in Jackson, Wyoming, the Central Utah Water Conservancy District’s Utah Valley Water Treatment Plant received the rarely achieved Phase IV “Excellence in Water Treatment” recognition from the Partnership for Safe Water.

This program is a national volunteer initiative developed by the U.S. EPA and other water organizations representing water suppliers striving to provide their communities with drinking water quality that surpasses the required federal standards. Phase IV is the highest possible level of performance that can be achieved in the four-phased Partnership program, and signifies optimized plant performance. Only one other water utility in the nation has reached this performance level.

“Reaching Phase IV status is a very significant achievement in our ongoing work to meet stringent performance goals,” said Dave Hardy, Plant Manager. “Improving the quality of our water remains a goal we will continually strive to meet and exceed.”

The Partnership currently includes more than 200 water utilities, collectively serving more than 90 million people. Each utility has committed to the enhancement of drinking water quality and operational excellence in water treatment.

As members of the Partnership, utilities make a pledge to their communities to improve their treatment operations to reduce the risk of exposure to microbial contaminants, namely Cryptosporidium, a parasite that can cause illness. By making this commitment the member utilities’ treatment practices undergo a rigorous review developed by national experts, and includes a four-phased self-assessment and peer review process.

AWWA is the authoritative resource for knowledge, information, and advocacy to improve the quality and supply of drinking water in North America and beyond. AWWA is the largest organization of water professionals in the world. AWWA advances public health, safety and welfare by uniting the efforts of the full spectrum of the drinking water community. Through our collective strength we become better stewards of water for the greatest good of the people and the environment.

Source:  http://www.awwa.org/

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

Fidel is looking for a thinner filter cake:

The filter press cake we currently produced (30% dry solid) is too thick for the incineration plant to handle.  The base aluminum sulphate is to be mixed with polymer.  Zetag 85 on a trial basis...

Any other solution to decrease thickness of the sludge cake is gladly welcome....(Click here to post a reply)

Thanks,
Fidel
etartaip@macau.ctm.net

Mr. Sanfins needs help with WT support decision tools:

I'm working with a water treatment system and I want to develop a support decision tools regarding the management of the water system. Anyone knows anything about this?  (Click here to post a reply)

Thanks in advance,
Alexandre Sanfins
Estudos & Trabalho S.A.
aasanfins@mail.telepac.pt

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

IT Expert wanted for Commercial Management of Utilities

The Company:  Dr. Fromme International Consulting, based in Essen, Germany, the company's international consulting tasks range from strategy to finance, specializing in environment infrastructure. We work for German water firms as well as for international donors and are currently engaged in several development projects. The preparation of investment projects plays an equally important role to the enhancement of efficiency of public utility companies by management consulting and PPP/PSP.

The Task:  We are looking for short term and long term experts for a management consulting and institution building project in the Balkans.
The consultants work on the transformation of the waterworks into a modern customer and efficiency oriented services organization.
Analysis, Design and Implementation of IT (software) and management systems as well as coaching of the management of several water works present the key aspects of this challenging assignment.

Your Profile:
A must:  
Academic degree in IT or business administration  
Proficiency of English language
Relevant professional experience in the strategic design of commercial software applications, finance and accounting (IAS), general ledger and cost accounting, integration with billing systems, ERP, MIS, data base systems, organizational development, etc.          
 
A plus:
Experience in transformation economies; especially Balkans
Professional experience in water / waste water organization or utilities
Experience in donor projects
 
 
Please contact me if you are interested in this opportunity.
 
Mr. Frauke Wulff
e-mail: application@internationalconsult.com

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