Hach Helps Customers Do More With Less

Derek Walker of Hach introduces monitoring and measurement solutions to overcome today’s challenging financial and regulatory environment.

In this Q&A with Water Online Radio, Walker talks about…

Simplicity: “Hach Company was started on the principle to make chemistry more accessible to the masses, so that folks without Ph.Ds or master’s degrees in chemistry can get results using chemical test kits without having a chemical degree.

These are plant operators.  These are technicians out in the field trying to do what can be complicated chemistry, but just in a very efficient, simplified manner.  And that’s really what the company grew up on. 

Now we’re into online instrumentation, automation of treatment plants, and processes within treatment plants. From a small mom and pop operation, now we’re global in virtually all aspects of treatment.”

New products: “Hach LDO is a new technology and a new method for measuring dissolved oxygen.  And we use the term new because it’s newly approved. 

It’s a new optical technology as opposed to an older membrane based methodology or polar graphic methodology.  May of 2012 is when the EPA finally approved the method and the technology for use in compliance reporting.

So it’s been a long time coming and a lot of work has been put into it.  And, obviously, not every facility was able to use the benefits of the technology because it was not previously approved.”

The challenges of compliance reporting:  “They [labs] have to re-test more and more things, analytes in the water, tests for tighter limits, lower limits of contaminants.  But yet their staff and budgets are shrinking.  So, essentially, the concept of trying to do more with less is in play at treatment facilities and compliance labs across the country. 

They don’t have as much capital to spend on instrumentation or equipment.  And they also don’t have the staff in some cases.  So, in many cases, they are looking for simpler or more efficient ways of doing compliance tests.”

Philosophy and objectives:  “We want to be here to support the industry.  We feel that the products and technology that we’re launching can really help a lot of those efficiencies that we’ve talked about.  They can do more with less.  We’ve got several new methods for ammonia and phosphorus. We’re here to help customers with regulatory questions, compliance questions, and especially on the laboratory side.”

Click the Radio Player above to hear the full interview.