Water Remediation Technology, LLC (WRT), has installed and put into operation two new Z-88 radium removal systems in the village of Antioch, Ill., further expanding its operations in that state. Under a 20-year contact, the WRT system will improve the quality and safety of drinking water for residents.
Located just south of the Wisconsin border in Lake County, Antioch is a historic community with nearly 14,000 residents. The WRT treatment systems will lower the amount of radium in the water to a level below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) requirements, ensuring that the community has safe drinking water.
WRT will also be responsible for the environmentally safe handling, removal and shipping of the radium-laden treatment media from the treatment site to a licensed disposal facility. This disposal at a remote facility will prevent the reintroduction of the radioactive contamination back into the local Antioch environment, as can be the case with other treatment technologies.
“Of all the systems we looked at, WRT made it the easiest to get the radium down to the levels we needed,” Dave Hansen, public works operator for the village of Antioch, said. “As the town grows, the WRT system will give us more water treatment options.”
Prior to being treated, the radium concentration in the two new Antioch wells averaged 12.3 pCi/L (picocuries per liter), exceeding the EPA’s mandated MCL’s. The EPA’s guidelines allow for a maximum radium presence of only 5 pCi/L. The WRT treatment systems will maintain the radium levels within EPA limits, with one system processing 600 gpm and the other processing 860 gpm.
With these two additional systems in operation, WRT now has a total of 18 treatment systems operating in Illinois under its Illinois Radioactive Materials License.
Source: Water Remediation Technology
