Problem
A North Dakota power plant was not running at full capacity, which caused a water imbalance. This condition led to evaporation pond levels rising to near-overflow conditions. Plant personnel were concerned they could be put in a situation where any overflow would have violated EPA regulations, which could have led to a mandated plant shutdown.
A history of similar projects and positive results at the parent company led the power plant to choose MPW for this essential project.
Solution
MPW’s Applications, Field Service and Sales teams combined to devise the best solution for the client’s issue: wastewater of 5,500 μS/cm was partially reused in the cooling tower, while the level of the pond was reduced. Meanwhile, the concentrate was diverted to another pond.
MPW’s system utilized mobile media filtration and reverse osmosis (RO), which are the optimal temporary methods for rectifying such a situation. Normal expectations for RO technology would top out around 2,500 μS/cm, but this application reached 5,500 μS/cm.
Results
MPW’s solution purified nearly 20 million gallons of water and eliminated the potential for any EPA violations.
The plant remained in operation during the one-month project and the pond levels were reduced to safe and manageable conditions to allow for continued operations.