Hard Water

The “Fourth Industrial Revolution for the Earth” is a publication series highlighting opportunities to solve the world’s most pressing environmental challenges by harnessing technological innovations supported by new and effective approaches to governance, financing and multistakeholder collaboration. We have a unique opportunity to harness this Fourth Industrial Revolution – and the societal shifts it triggers – to help address environmental issues and transform how we manage our shared global environment. The Fourth Industrial Revolution could, however, also exacerbate existing threats to environmental security or create entirely new risks that will need to be considered and managed.  Harnessing these opportunities and proactively managing these risks will require a transformation of the “enabling environment”, namely the governance frameworks and policy protocols, investment and financing models, the prevailing incentives for technology development, and the nature of societal engagement.

Executive Summary The City of Grand Ledge (City) retained Fishbeck to evaluate options for the replacement of the City’s existing iron removal treatment system. Fishbeck is evaluating three options as part of this process: the installation of a new iron removal system, the installation of a new softening system, and receiving water from the adjacent Lansing Board of Water & Light (LBWL) system. This report evaluates the second option, the installation of a new softening treatment system to replace the existing iron removal system. The City’s existing iron removal plant utilizes an AERALATER® Type II-Q Packaged Iron and Manganese Removal System by General Filter (Aeralater) for iron removal. The Aeralater is at the end of its useful life, and has significant signs of deterioration. The repair of the Aeralater system was investigated as part of a prior study completed by Fishbeck, which determined that repair of the Aeralater would be costly and would give a low return on investment. The City opted to move forward assuming that the Aeralater unit would need to be replaced, rather than attempt to repair it.

Introduction: The industrial water user should determine if implementation of each identified BMP measure to achieve water savings would be cost effective. The analysis should determine the cost effectiveness to the industrial water user of the lower direct costs of the saved water and other cost savings that may also accrue. Many operating procedures and controls that improve water use efficiency should be implemented simply as a matter of good practice. In other cases the industrial user may decide to implement BMPs based on non-cost factors such as public good will or political reasons. In evaluating equipment and process additions or changes, each industry should utilize its own criteria for making capital improvement decisions.