Water
Protection
and delivery of high quality water for public consumption and
industrial use is of national importance. Population growth
and urban/suburban development
continue to challenge the nation's ability to provide safe
potable water for its citizens. HydroQual assists municipalities,
public authorities, private drinking water companies, and developers
in meeting this
challenge.
HydroQual identifies and locates new sources of groundwater
supply through hydrogeologic investigations and aquifer testing.
We use groundwater flow and contaminant transport models to
determine the long-term safe yield of not only individual wells,
but regional
aquifer systems, and assess the potential impact of nearby
sources of contamination.
HydroQual
has extensive experience in watershed management for surface
water sources, employing techniques such as the control of land use, development
density
and facility siting proximate to water supply reservoirs. HydroQual
has developed proprietary surface water quality modeling tools that provide
iterative and interactive methods of evaluating the effects of
land use
changes, population growth and wastewater treatment facilities
on pollutant loadings delivered to a water supply reservoir. HydroQual
uses mathematical
modeling to assess the effect of pollutant loading on water quality
within the reservoir system. In particular, increased nutrient inputs
to a water
supply can lead to undesirable algal blooms, which in turn can
result in taste and odor problems and increased treatment costs.
Whether it
be groundwater or surface water, with over 35 years of experience in process
development, testing, and designing treatment systems for taste, odor,
particulate, organic and microbiological contaminants, HydroQual can help
with your water treatment needs. With a long history of successful development
and application of new technology including ultraviolet (UV) disinfection
to water and wastewater, HydroQual can also help you meet the current
USEPA Disinfection Byproducts Rules which impose greater controls for
microbial contamination of surface waters and groundwaters impacted by
suface waters.
- Hydrogeologic
Investigations -
The application
of conventional and innovative technologies for
the identification of groundwater resources is a HydroQual specialty.
These include soil
and bedrock test borings, monitoring well installations,
bedrock coring and packer testing,
bedrock FLUTe
technology, and fracture trace/lineament studies.
- Aquifer
Testing and Permitting -
HydroQual
staff have designed and conducted various types
of aquifer tests for over 30 years. These tests include preliminary
yield test, 8-hour
step-drawdown tests and 72+ hour pumping tests
to assess the long-term safe yield of the well. Monitoring of homeowner
wells is also routinely
included to quantify any adverse impacts from
pumping. Related permitting services include wetland mapping, groundwater
and surface water sampling,
presentations at planning board meetings, etc.
- Water
Treatment Design - HydroQual
has over 35 years of experience in process development, testing and
designing of treatment systems for taste, odor, particulate, and organic
and microbiological contaminants. Technology demonstrations are performed
through bench and pilot-scale treatment evaluations at our treatability
laboratory in Mahwah, New Jersey or at our client sites. These evaluations
include coagulation, flocculation, aeration, chemical oxidation, macro
and micro filtration, pH adjustment, carbon adsorption, ion exchange
and disinfection. These evaluations are conducted to develop or demonstrate
treatment processes capable of meeting federal and state primary and
secondary drinking water maximum contaminant levels (MCLs).
HydroQual
also brings extensive experience in chemical fate and transport, nutrient
and algae issues, municipal and industrial wastewater and contaminated
groundwater treatment. This experience allows us to address treatment
issues for many of the contaminants of concern for drinking water including
volatile organic compounds, MTBE and disinfection byproducts, pesticides
and herbicides and metals. Our work with USEPA and state regulatory
agencies on the development of water quality criteria for freshwater
also keeps us informed about emerging contaminants and wastewater treatment
methods.
- Surface
Water Modeling and Studies - HydroQual
is well known for the development, application and evaluation of surface
water and sediment transport models. This experience has been used
to evaluate best management practices (BMPs) and point source controls
necessary to protect the quality of surface water supplies. The type,
location and size of BMPs to reduce turbidity, suspended solids, and
pathogen and nutrient loads have been developed on a watershed scale
for water
supply reservoir systems. HydroQual also has applied this expertise
to recommend BMPs on a small scale such as a single development project
or to minimize highway runoff impacts on adjacent reservoirs. Similarly,
the level of wastewater treatment at existing or proposed facilities
required to protect downstream water quality can be determined. The
models used for surface water supply quality evaluation range from
relatively simple, steady state, single system analyses to complex
hydrodynamic, time-variable, multi-parameter studies. The analysis
tool is carefully matched to the problem setting.
All surface
waters in New Jersey have been designated by the New Jersey Department
of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) for a water supply use. HydroQual
has assisted numerous New Jersey municipalities and environmental authorities
in meeting stringent surface water quality standards that accompany
a water supply use. This experience covers issues and parameters such
as high algae resulting from excess nutrients, nitrate, total dissolved
solids, metals and disinfection byproducts. Each of these parameters
can impact a water supply from a health risk standpoint. Algae, stimulated
by nutrient discharges, can impact the water treatment process and
can cause taste and odor problems in the finished water.
- Ultraviolet
Disinfection - HydroQual
process engineers have pioneered the application of ultraviolet (UV)
disinfection to water and wastewater. The Stage 2 Disinfection and
Disinfection Byproduct Rule (DBPR) and the Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface
Water Treatment Rule (LT2ESWTR), promulgated
by the USEPA, impose greater conrols for microbial contamination of
surface waters and groundwater under the direct influence of surface
water. This has led to the increased use of ultraviolet light disinfection
technologies for water supply applications, which has been found to
be more effective than chlorine with protozoan contaminants such as
Cryptosporidium. HydroQual has been instrumental in the development
of protocols to evaluate UV, and operates the largest UV validation
and research facility in the world, directed to validating the performance
of UV reactors that are to be used for water supply disinfection applications.
UV related services include:
- Developing
process design basis for UV applications to reuse water and drinking
water.
- Research
and implement technology advances, including reactor performance,
alternate UV sources, hydraulic characteristics and process modeling.
- Modeling
the intensity field within UV reactors.
- Conducting
collimated beam dose-response testing for specific applications.
- Reactor
validation testing under the current USEPA LT2 and groundwater
regulations and the UV disinfection guidance manual protocols.
