New water disinfection system impressive: superintendent

A relatively new water disinfection system is getting two thumbs up by Springdale's superintendent.

Pat King said he was impressed when representatives of Miox Corporation conducted a presentation on their sodium based hypochlorite operation at the Canadian Public Works Association meeting in early October in Gander.

The system doesn't require liquid or gas chlorine, because the operation produces chlorine itself, said Tom Muilenberg, sales manager for Miox.

"We're taking the salt and dissolving it into water, so we have both sodium and chloride in a solution," he said. "And as you pass that through an electrolytic cell you end up stripping the chloride off of the ions and then it recombines to form chlorine. You're creating chlorine from the solution by converting chloride ions naturally found in salt."

Mr. King said the system could be beneficial to municipalities in the province.

"It's a fairly new system and it's starting to gain some good reviews," he said. "For any community starting off new, I don't think it would be that expensive."

He said current chlorine systems municipalities use require a specialized trained individual to handle the substance.

But with the sodium based hypochlorite system, it's relatively harmless because it's chlorine free.

Another upside to the system is that there's no need to have a large inventory of liquid chlorine on site, running the risk of the substance losing its potency, because with this system, it produces chlorine as needed at the right strength, he said.

"There are a lot of side benefits to it," he said.

Mr. King said the Town of Springdale has a good water system in place and there's no short term plans to change over to the sodium based hypochlorite system.

"We have no immediate plans or reasons to change, but it's nice to know that system is there," he said. "It's a good system and I could see it replacing all the liquid chlorine applications out there."

The cost varies due to size of the operation, ranging between US$15, 000 to $30,00 for small to medium size systems. There are five systems operating in the province, and one pilot project completed, with one in the pipeline.