Osmonics Building $1.65M Municipal Reverse Osmosis Plant

Osmonics Inc. is now filling an order from the city of Ottawa, Illinois, to build four MUNI Series reverse osmosis (RO) systems valued at $1.65 million. The RO systems will be used to purify the city's entire drinking water supply, treating four million gallons of water per day and serving 18,500 residents.

Ottawa's new water treatment facility is under construction and the filtration equipment is expected to be operational in February 2002. Each of the four MUNI Series reverse osmosis systems will be constructed at Osmonics' ISO 9001-certified manufacturing facility located in Minnetonka, Minnesota. The MUNI Series systems are shipped as a fully tested package and ready for immediate installation, saving Ottawa the cost of on-site development and integration.

"The City of Ottawa is the latest of several central Illinois cities that are using reverse osmosis technology to improve the quality of their water," said Curt Weitnauer, vice president and general manager of Osmonics' Process Water Group. "In building its new water treatment facility, Ottawa engineers chose RO technology because it proved to be the most economical option, eliminating the need to spend money on additional property or pay for treating excess waste."

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), mandates that a city's drinking water may have no more than 5 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) of radium. Currently, Ottawa has between 3.8 and 12.4 pCi/L of radium in the groundwater from its four wells. The RO systems will use 840 Osmonics replaceable reverse osmosis membrane elements to filter radium out of the city's drinking water, helping Ottawa meet the SDWA standards. At the same time, the equipment will soften the water and improve its overall quality without adding sodium.

Osmonics is a manufacturer and worldwide marketer of high-technology water purification and fluid filtration, fluid separation and fluid handling equipment, as well as the replaceable components used in purification, filtration, and separation equipment. These products are used by a broad range of industrial, commercial, household and institutional customers.

Source: Business Wire