Boiling water makes it safe to drink, right? Sadly, that’s not always the case. Some of the algae that contaminate waterways can produce toxins that cannot be removed by boiling. Other measures to combat harmful algal blooms (HABs) are necessary.

How big is the potential HAB threat to clean water? By one estimate, anywhere from 30 million to 48 million Americans get their drinking water from lakes and reservoirs that could be periodically contaminated by algal toxins.

Blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) is a common and particularly noxious contaminant that blooms during the spring and summer months across tens of thousands of lakes, reservoirs, ponds, and managed wastewater repositories. The toxins that blue-green algae produce can be a direct health risk for humans, pets, livestock, and wildlife. Thick, slimy blue-green algal blooms also discourage recreational activities and threaten water-dependent industries.

An estimate of the costs associated with managing freshwater algal blooms cited by the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) says the United States alone spends $4.6 billion annually on the problem. There are the obvious costs of keeping water supplies clean and potable, but the estimate also tries to account for the millions of dollars of potential tourism revenue that can be lost.

Cities and utilities understandably face a lot of pressure to mitigate the problem. Until recently, one of the few measures available has been to treat threatened water supplies with chemicals.

There is growing concern that many of the chemicals being used are detrimental to humans and wildlife, however. Some chemical treatments also harm algal variants that are otherwise benign. Worse yet, some can kill bacteria in the water that help check algal growth by removing nitrogen and phosphorus, both nutrients for algae. Meanwhile, anaerobic bacteria typically remain unaffected; some of these bacteria are the ones that produce nasty sewer odors. 

HABs are always possible, but human activity increases their likelihood. Many household cleaning products contain phosphorus, which often makes its way into the environment. Lawn fertilizers and agricultural fertilizers also contain nutrients that feed algal blooms; run-off from these sources is a big problem. A warmer climate means warmer waters, and that encourages algal blooms too.

Managing nutrient levels is therefore an important means for reducing HABs in both the short- and long-term. This means regular testing of all influents and sections of the water body to determine the source.

That is not always enough to forestall HABs, however – hence the use of chemicals. But with the growing reluctance to use such a shotgun approach, what other recourse do water managers have?

The application of ultrasonic waves is proving to be an effective algae mitigation technique. It’s been estimated that approximately 95% of the 70,000 species and two million sub-species of algae are affected by ultrasonic systems.

Different frequencies attack different algae in different ways, and individual species of algae and bacteria (including cyanobacteria) can be precisely targeted. Ultrasonic sound waves at select frequencies travel through the water only and cause structural and fatal damage to the targeted blooms.

A wide frequency range proves effective in treating most algae. The latest ultrasonic systems from WaterIQ Technologies^TM are capable of transmitting over 2,000 frequencies, far exceeding the capabilities of earlier versions. These next-generation systems are now autonomous and now equipped with solar converters to power all onboard systems. 

The mechanical design of our most advanced systems has been improved too. Ultrasonic algae mitigation systems can now be built with materials that repel algae, reducing the chance of biofouling (which in turn can reduce their effectiveness).

The latest ultrasonic solutions have been shown to be highly effective and a much safer way to eliminate harmful algae variants. A holistic approach that involves bothnutrient management and ultrasonic algae control can be very effective at providing a rapid, long-term solution to the problem.

About the Author

George Hutchinson is the Co-founder and CTO of WaterIQ, an algae mitigation company specializing in ultrasonic solutions that reduce or eliminate the need for chemicals and other costly or largely ineffective solutions.

The post Ultrasonic Technology Effectively Combats Blue Green Algae Blooms appeared first on WaterIQ Technologies.

The post Learn why the City of Port St. Joe chose WaterIQ Technologies to help address its algae problem appeared first on WaterIQ Technologies.

Our CTO, George Hutchison recently spoke with Smart Water Magazine about the science behind the increase in harmful algae blooms affecting the world’s water systems. It’s no secret that algae and biofilm can wreak havoc on water systems ranging from wastewater treatment to golf courses, lakes, and ponds, to small private and agricultural ponds, to potable water. In fact, algae can create complex hydrocarbons that are toxic to humans and other living beings, and the problem is only getting worse.

After spending the majority of his career with Amoco Chemical Company, George switched gears to design and perfect ultrasonic algae and biofilm control products which led him to his current position as the CTO of WaterIQ Technologies. His expertise in chemical engineering has helped to develop industry-leading water treatment solutions that are installed around the world.  Our solutions – the WaterIQ Technologies Sentinel AIQ^TM, Pulsar^TM, and BioPulse^TM families – reliably eliminate algae and prevent the formation of biofilm.  We’re committed to continuous innovation and are dedicated to restoring water ecosystems to their natural states through industry-leading technology.

Rising temperatures around the world are causing algae blooms to occur earlier in the year and could potentially last longer.  George talks about algae blooms and their impacts, and the current solutions for algae management.

For more on this topic, check out the full Q&A with our CTO George Hutchinson in the February issue of Smart Water Magazine (pages 52-55).

The post Tech Talk with WaterIQ CTO George Hutchinson appeared first on WaterIQ Technologies.

The post Historic Ecuadorian City Installs WaterIQ Sentinel Systems appeared first on WaterIQ Technologies.

• Is unsightly algae clogging your irrigation filters and creating odors in your ponds?
• Are you over discharge limits in your wastewater ponds?
• Are you tired of dealing with chemicals?

 

Learn about how ultrasound technology can help reduce your chemical use, and offer a more sustainable option for controlling algae in your ponds.

Stop by the WaterIQ Booth to qualify for a complimentary algae identification kit  at the WinExpo – booth 516/617.

For more information on our products, click here.

For more information and to register for Win EXPO, on December 2, click here.

The post WinExpo #ExpoDeals appeared first on WaterIQ Technologies.

WaterIQ Technologies’ new Sentinel AIQ , Pulsar 3000 and 4000 and BioPulse 1000 products restore and safeguard water ecosystems from harmful algae and biofilm without the use of chemicals

WEFTEC, Chicago – October 12, 2021 – WaterIQ Technologies, a privately owned technology company focused on developing next-generation ultrasonic solutions to combat harmful algae and biofilm without the use of chemicals, is announcing three new product lines and the availability of four new products – Sentinel AIQ, Pulsar 3000 and 4000, and BioPulse 1000 – which will be unveiled at WEFTEC 2021 in Chicago.

Climate change, a growing population, and an overabundance of nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen are causing severe pollution including the formation of harmful algae blooms that are harmful for humans, animals, and other forms of life. Wastewater treatment plants, drinking water utilities, agriculture, wineries, lakes and ponds, and golf courses are all plagued by harmful algae. We’re also witnessing the formation of biofilm on surfaces that become the food source for invasive species such as Zebra Mussels which can cause excessive damage to machinery and equipment and clog pipes and valves. In addition to the environmental and health hazards, algae also has economic consequences including falling tourism, falling property values, negative impact to the fishing industry, and higher
operating costs for drinking water utilities.

To combat this, WaterIQ Technologies was formed to design and manufacture next-generation ultrasonic technology to sustainably and reliably defend water from algae and biofilm. In addition, the company uses IoT technology to report telemetry data, including the operational status of units and water health data captured from onboard sensors, and transmits this data for remote monitoring and analysis.

Lawrence Field, CEO, WaterIQ Technologies, says: “WaterIQ Technologies believes that ultrasound is a much better solution for removing algae than using chemicals. It is safer for the environment and the people who apply it and less expensive over the long run. Algae is thriving on our planet due to warmer temperatures and the supply of nutrients found in fertilizers, detergents, and other pollutants, introduced by humankind. WaterIQ Technologies’ mission is to eliminate harmful algae and biofilm, believing that access to clean water is not only a fundamental human right but it makes the world a healthier and more beautiful place for all forms of life.”

WaterIQ Technologies is also strategically partnering with SonicSolutions Algae Control LLC, which will act as its Master Distributor. SonicSolutions Algae Control LLC is a very well-respected authority on ultrasonic solutions and has sold over 3,000 systems worldwide. WaterIQ Technologies’ solutions will provide SonicSolutions Algae Control LLC with very effective and highly reliable technology in the war against algae and biofilm.

The three product lines WaterIQ Technologies is unveiling at WEFTEC 2021, with general availability December 1, are:

Sentinel AIQ – The Sentinel AIQ is WaterIQ Technologies’ flagship product. Sentinel AIQ is designed for larger bodies of water where the requirement is for an autonomous system that doesn’t require land-based power. Sentinel is a watercraft equipped with solar energy to provide electricity to all onboard systems. Every component is designed for performance and reliability over many years of use. Every Sentinel AIQ is equipped with a Pulsar 4000 ultrasonic algae remediation appliance. Sentinel AIQ represents the industry’s next-generation solar-
powered ultrasonic floating algae remediation solution.

Pulsar family – ​​The Pulsar 3000 and 4000 use next-generation advancements in
ultrasonic technology to treat algae. Both feature 360 ° coverage models, with the Pulsar 3000

covering ideally suited for clarifiers, small lakes and ponds, and golf courses. The Pulsar 4000 is ideal for larger lakes, drinking water treatment reservoirs, and wastewater treatment lagoons. The Pulsar 3000+ and Pulsar 4000+ introduce onboard IoT technology to transmit telemetry data to the cloud, including the location of the unit and its operational status. The WaterIQ
Technologies’ Pulsar family represents the industry’s next-generation ultrasonic algae defense
systems designed for performance and field reliability.

BioPulse 1000 – The BioPulse 1000 is the industry’s first purpose-built ultrasonic solution designed to prevent biofilm from forming on surfaces. The spread of biofilm in water presents significant problems, including a large population of invasive species such as Zebra Mussels.
These species can cause significant problems for water treatment facilities, including clogging pipes and valves. The BioPulse 1000 is designed to address this problem by removing an essential food source, biofilm. The BioPulse 1000 can be found in Drinking Water Treatment Plants, Wastewater Treatment Plants, Lakes, Ponds, and Winery wastewater treatment ponds.

WaterIQ Technologies will be present at SonicSolutions Algae Control’s booth 1520 at WEFTEC. For more information on WaterIQ Technologies and its latest products, or to become a reseller, visit the WaterIQ Technologies website: www.WaterIQTech.com.

About WaterIQ Technologies:

WaterIQ Technologies is a technology company that designs solutions to defend water in drinking water treatment utilities, wastewater drinking plants, golf courses, lakes and ponds, and wineries from algae and biofilm contamination.

WaterIQ Technologies uses next-generation ultrasonic technology, designed to be highly effective and reliable, to eliminate algae and prevent its return and on-board monitoring technology to capture critical water quality data from sensors and transfer it in real-time for remote monitoring and analytics. As a result, our customers can remotely monitor water health, including the treatment of alga. WaterIQ Technologies’ solutions and highly competent staff play a crucial part in an overall prescriptive solution to restore water to its natural state.

Media Contact:

Emma Routley, Publitek
emma.routley@publitek.com
949-383-8385

The post WaterIQ Technologies™ emerges from stealth mode at WEFTEC 2021; announces three new product lines to combat harmful algae and biofilm appeared first on WaterIQ Technologies.

When your mission is “delivering high-quality water 365 days a year,” you’d better be certain that you can live up to your promise. For Aquarion Water Company, a public water utility that operates in a three-state region of New England, there are 700,000 people who will accept nothing less when they turn on their faucets and spigots.

With several reservoirs exposed year-round to the elements, keeping algae at bay is a huge part of delivering upon that mission. At three reservoirs in particular – North Stamford, Putman, and Mianus, in Connecticut – Aquarion sought to reduce its dependence upon copper sulphate treatments to control a blue-green algae issue. 

The company hoped to find an alternative that would make quick work of the eradication of the algae blooms, while both reducing chemical use and increasing water quality.

Drinking water customers can taste the ultrasonic difference

Aquarion deployed a broad ultrasonic solution, placing nine ultrasonic rafts into the three Western Connecticut reservoirs. The four rafts in North Stamford, three in Putnam, and two in Mianus had a quick and evident impact. Not only was the instance of blue-green algae growth nearly eliminated, but so, too, was the need for the tons of copper sulfate that was being dumped into the water supply.

“Taste improved, and a frequently-heard complaint of odor in the drinking water was no more“

The results downstream were even more dramatic: Taste improved, and a frequently-heard complaint of odor in the drinking water was no more. Today, the high-quality drinking water that flows from faucets in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire is a source of pride for Aquarion.

Let us help you control your algae or biofilm problem

We appreciate the trust of the 3000 SonicSolutions customers worldwide, and now are  committed to making sure the next generation of products from WaterIQ Technologies remain the industry’s most advanced ultrasound solutions control the algae or biofilm challenges in your water.

Are you on our mailing list? WaterIQ Technologies sends occasional email updates to customers and friends on new technologies, products and (you guessed it) WaterIQ Stories. Please click here to join our mailing list.

The post Controlling algae in water supply for 700,000 New England residents appeared first on WaterIQ Technologies.

For golf aficionados, the Indian Wells Golf Resort represents the pinnacle of golfing nirvana. Hard against the Palm Desert of Southern California, its 36 holes of publicly-accessible golf beckons duffers from across the world, earning Indian Wells a multitude of accolades, including a ranking among Golfweek’s top 20 “Best Courses You Can Play.”

Sculpted out of very arid and sandy topography, Indian Wells Golf Resort today sports meandering streams, natural flowers, striking waterfalls – and about 30 on-course irrigation ponds that require a hefty commitment to keep clear of algae blooms that would prove ruinous to the Indian Wells experience.

Chemical treatment of these ponds, said former Indian Wells General Manager Rich Carter, was a costly and time-consuming exercise that wasn’t always successful in bringing the algae blooms under control.

A flotilla of ultrasonic floats solves a golf course’s problem

Enter SonicSolutions, currently master distributor for Water IQ Technologies, which blanketed the course with more than 20 floating ultrasonic treatment devices. Several were placed in hard-to-reach confines of the course, operating on self-generated solar power. 

The results were dramatic, according to Carter.

“All of us at the Indian Wells Golf Course are very pleased with our algae control devices,” Carter said. “Although we were initially skeptical that the devices would work, we have not needed to use any chemicals for algae control in our ponds— even through the hottest months of the summer!

“We have 21 units controlling algae and helping preserve the beauty of our golf course in an environmentally responsible way.”

“Today, we have 21 units, including 12 solar powered models, controlling algae and helping preserve the beauty of our golf course in an environmentally responsible way,” Carter added.

Let us help you control your algae or biofilm problem

We appreciate the trust of the 3000 SonicSolutions customers worldwide, and now are  committed to making sure the next generation of products from WaterIQ Technologies remain the industry’s most advanced ultrasound solutions control the algae or biofilm challenges in your water.

Are you on our mailing list? WaterIQ Technologies sends occasional email updates to customers and friends on new technologies, products and (you guessed it) WaterIQ Stories. Please click here to join our mailing list.

The post Eradicating algae on thirty golf course ponds in Palm Desert appeared first on WaterIQ Technologies.

Though algae can pose aesthetic concerns and are generally a nuisance, its presence in key water resources can be more than just visually disturbing.

Such was the case in the Canadian province of Ontario, where out-of-control blue-green and green algae in a key supply lagoon were causing an excess of dangerous effluent, and more total suspended solids (TSS) than the filtration system could handle.

The Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks needed to act quickly to control this harmful growth, which was already causing measurements to spike beyond the regulated limits of Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA), the Canadian version of the U.S. EPA. The growth also was overwhelming the Submerged Attached Growth Reactor (SAGR) disc filter, which was unable to keep up.

An ultrasonic solution restores a safe environment

The city of Sundridge – where the clogged lagoon was located – sought a timely and environmentally safe solution to its algae problems. After consulting with Sonic Solutions, WaterIQ Technologies recommended a floating ultrasonic treatment solution that could answer the call. When it was activated in mid-August – at the height of summer – the estimated count of cyanobacterial cells (a technical term for Algae growth) topped 2,000,000. 

After just 30 days of reliable operation, the ultrasonic raft reduced that count to 4,420 – a 500-time reduction – and at the two-month mark, just 1,600 cells were counted.

Schaffer commissioned a 90-day trial of the ultrasound technology in one reservoir; next door in reservoir No. 2, he used traditional copper sulfate treatment as a control. It was quickly apparent that the ultrasonic raft was just as effective in controlling the algae as copper sulfate, leaving the ultrasound-treated reservoir cleaner than it ever had been.

Though there are some species of algae blooms that are unaffected by ultrasound – these include Chlorophyceae (Chlamydomonas sp) and Cyanophyceae (Pseudanabaena sp.) – the amount is negligible when considering that ultrasonic technology can treat more than 2 million individual species.

“Ultrasound technology delivers a 500X reduction in cyanobacterial cell count“

Let us help you control your algae or biofilm problem

We appreciate the trust of our 3000 SonicSolutions customers worldwide, and now are  committed to making sure the next generation of WaterIQ Technologies products remain the industry’s most advanced ultrasound solutions control the algae or biofilm challenges in your water.

Are you on our mailing list? WaterIQ Technologies sends occasional email updates to customers and friends on new technologies, products and (you guessed it) WaterIQ Stories. Please click here to join our mailing list.

The post Keeping a City’s wastewater treatment lagoon safe from harmful algae appeared first on WaterIQ Technologies.

Residents of Wilmington, OH, count on the water that flows from their faucets to be safe and crystal clear. But follow those pipes to the city’s two drinking water reservoirs, and the contrast is stark: blooms of harmful blue-green and green algae, clustered atop a water feature that looked more landlocked than aquatic.

Like most city water departments, the city of Wilmington’s was no different in dumping copper sulfate by the metric ton into the lagoons in hopes of eradicating the algal scourge. But this costly and labor intensive gambit was only partially successful in controlling the blooms of cyanobacteria, cylindrospermopsin, and microcystis, and required an ongoing commitment to stay ahead of the growth.

The battle for algae control supremacy

Water Department Superintendent Rick Schaffer had heard of the effectiveness of the ultrasound technology pioneered by Sonic Solutions (and since adopted by Water IQ Technologies), but wanted to see the results for himself.

Schaffer commissioned a 90-day trial of the ultrasound technology in one reservoir; next door in reservoir No. 2, he used traditional copper sulfate treatment as a control. It was quickly apparent that the ultrasonic raft was just as effective in controlling the algae as copper sulfate, leaving the ultrasound-treated reservoir cleaner than it ever had been.

Let us help you control your algae or biofilm problem.

We appreciate the trust of our 3000 SonicSolutions customers worldwide, and now are  committed to making sure the next generation of products from WaterIQ Technologies remain the industry’s most advanced ultrasound solutions control the algae or biofilm challenges in your water.

Are you on our mailing list? WaterIQ Technologies sends occasional email updates to customers and friends on new technologies, products and (you guessed it) WaterIQ Stories. Please click here to join our mailing list.

The post An Ohio City’s solution for treating algae in its drinking water treatment reservoirs appeared first on WaterIQ Technologies.