Water Treatment

Water Treatment - Ultraviolet

With its proven effectiveness (99.99%!!!) against bacteria, viruses, and water-borne diseases, it's no wonder that UV disinfection is becoming the leading technology for treating harmful microorganisms.

Benefits of UV

There are some very important reasons why homeowners and large cities are choosing UV technology.

Highly effective: For over 25 years UV light has been trusted as a safe, cost-effective way to purify water and eliminate harmful micro-organisms. It's a proven EPA-endorsed technology that has been chosen by thousands of cities, bottled water manufacturers and others around the world.

Chemical free: UV provides water purification without the addition of harmful chemicals like chlorine. It also avoids the potential of generating harmful chemical disinfection by-products. Recent EPA guidelines are forcing cities across the US to reduce or eliminate the use of chlorine for exactly these reasons.

Taste & odour free: UV does not change the taste, odour or colour of water.

More effective than chlorine: Unlike chlorine, UV is effective against both Cryptosporidium and Giardia.

Compact and easy to maintain: A TrojanUVMax system, capable of treating the water for an entire home, is less than 20" (50cm) in length and fits just about anywhere. The only maintenance is an annual lamp change!

Private Water Supplies

Over 19 million American households and cottages rely on private wells. Tens of thousands more rely on lakes, streams, and other surface water sources. Unfortunately, not all of them have a UV water disinfection system protecting them from harmful micro-organisms.

While nation-wide studies do not exist, smaller scale studies have commonly found that between 20 and 40% of wells in any given region suffer from E.coli and/or coliform bacteria at any given time – not to mention the countless other micro-organisms that may be in a water supply.

The fact is that the quality of well water can vary from day to day and from year to year. In the short term, things like heavy rainfalls or snow melt can affect water quality. In the longer term quality may be affected by distant contamination sources such as earthquakes, and other factors.

Water that has been safe for years will not necessarily be safe tomorrow.

Municipal Water Supplies

Around the world governments invest heavily in order to assure the safety of the drinking water for their citizens. However, growing pollution and the costs of maintaining distribution networks make boil water advisories increasingly inevitable. Beyond the inconvenience they cause such advisories are a clear warning that the clean water we've taken for granted is becoming a scarce resource. In May 2000, 220 communities in British Columbia and 250 in Newfoundland faced boiled water advisories.

The Process

Ultraviolet (UV) disinfection uses a UV light source, which is enclosed in a transparent protective sleeve. It is mounted so that water can pass through a flow chamber and UV rays are admitted and absorbed into the stream. When ultraviolet energy is absorbed by the reproductive mechanisms of bacteria and viruses the genetic material (DNA/RNA) is rearranged and they can no longer reproduce. They are therefore considered dead and the risk of disease has been eliminated.

UV-rays are energy-rich electromagnetic rays that are found in the natural spectrum of the sunlight. They are in the range of the invisible short wave light having a wavelength ranging from 100 to 400 nm (1 nanometre = 10-9m).

Literature:

• Total, Fecal & E.coli Bacteria in Groundwater