Mazzei Addresses ‘Poisoned Waters'

Jim Jackson, manager of water and wastewater processes at Mazzei Injector Company, sat down with Water Online Radio for this live interview from the show floor at WEFTEC 2011 in Los Angeles. Jackson related how Mazzei products can reduce endocrine disrupting compounds in the water system, as well as the footprint for treatment systems. Listen or read on to learn more.

Todd Schnick: We are back, broadcasting live from the Los Angeles Convention Center and the tradeshow floor of WEFTEC. I am Todd Schnick, joined by my cohost, Todd Youngblood. Todd, the morning is just churning along right away isn’t it?

Todd Youngblood: I know, and I’m feeling like my head is about ready to explode. I don’t know how much more I can absorb.

Todd Schnick: Yeah.

Todd Youngblood: This is really fascinating stuff.

Todd Schnick: Now, we are doing good. We are wrapping up our second hour. We are really pleased to be joined by Jim Jackson, who is the manager of water and wastewater processes. He is from Mazzei. Welcome to Water Online Radio.

Jim Jackson: Thank you, Todd.

Todd Schnick: Before we get into it, why don’t you take a few minutes and just tell us a little about yourself and about Mazzei?

Jim Jackson: Well Mazzei Injector is a gas injection company that originally started off with chemical injection in the late ‘70s. We moved then to gas injection and, initially, our market was wastewater aeration.

We got pulled into the world of ozone treatment for drinking water plants and recent changes in water quality and water quality issues has brought us full circle back to wastewater. Personally, I am starting my 31st year in municipal and industrial water and wastewater treatment processes.

Todd Schnick: Alright, what do you see as the emerging trends and issues in water and wastewater going into 2012?

Jim Jackson: There seems to be a growing concern about the prevalence of endocrine disrupting compounds, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides in both our drinking water and wastewater systems.

In fact, there was a PBS special in 2009 called Poisoned Waters in which the EPA chief, Lisa Jackson, made a comment about the need for the EPA to pay closer attention to the discharges into our service waters and streams, so recently we’ve seen some wastewater projects addressing those issues.

Todd Schnick: So what is Mazzei doing to address this trend?

Jim Jackson: Well, interesting you should ask. In the construction of these treatment systems, primarily the ozone systems for degrading some of the pharmaceutical compounds and endocrine disrupting compounds, they’ve started to adapt our small footprint, secondary gas mixing device called the Pipeline Flash Reactor to reduce the infrastructure size and footprint of the construction of the project.

Todd Youngblood: Yeah, I am curious. You’ve mentioned pharmaceutical a couple of times. Are you doing any collaboration with those companies? They are certainly not on purpose causing these problems? How are you working with the sources or these issues?

Jim Jackson: Well, Todd, actually the sources are you and me. Many of the compounds we take for our aches and pains, including acetaminophen and some of the other drugs that are advertised heavily on TV, is excreted by humans and, through standard wastewater treatment, is not removed from the discharge.

If the wastewater plant is discharging into a river, lake, or stream, and that happens to also be the drinking water source for a municipality around the stream, it enters our drinking water system. So I am a source, as are you, of many of the pharmaceuticals that enter our wastewater.

Todd Youngblood: Well, that is a really interesting perspective I never would have thought of it that way.

Todd Schnick: I always knew you were responsible.

Todd Youngblood: Well, no, you always think of the big evil corporation that is causing the problem and it really personalizes things. It makes perfect sense. On the one hand, I want all those pharmaceuticals, for example, but holy cow, I am glad that we’ve got some folks that are worried about treating the wastewater on the other end of that.

Todd Schnick: A guest just on before you talked about one of the biggest problems is a lack of communication. What do you think of that statement? Is there a communication problem? Who needs to be communicated to? The company that is producing these or is there something that can be said to people, like Todd and I, who are consuming these things to practice different habits?

Jim Jackson: Well, unless you can hold it for a very long time, there is not a lot you are going to do.

Todd Youngblood: No more coffee, Schnick.

Todd Schnick: Yeah, well I'm toast.

Jim Jackson: But right now there is confusion in the marketplace. There have been statements made, but no new law has been promulgated addressing the issues of the compounds in either our drinking water or wastewater. And yet we are currently involved in separate projects for wastewater plants that are actually addressing these issues, using a combination of ultrafiltration and ozone oxidation to both disinfect and to degrade many of the pharmaceutical compounds in the wastewater.

Todd Schnick: Okay, tell me more about some of these projects. Tell our Water Online audience about a recent win you achieved for one of your customers.

Jim Jackson: Okay, recently we’ve worked with an engineering firm that may be familiar to many, MWH Global. They were tasked with the design of the wastewater treatment system for wastewater reuse with Clark County. Most of us would think of that as Las Vegas, Nevada.

Todd Schnick: I used to live there. I am very familiar with Clark County.

Jim Jackson: Okay, the original design was going to use standard gas diffusion contact basins, but upon surveying the site, we noticed that all the infrastructures had cracks. In fact, the only way we could support a deep, large basin was by sinking substantial concrete pillars into the ground.

That placed the project out of the reach of the county. By utilizing a Mazzei Pipeline Flash Reactor, we are able to reduce the size of that by 75%, and that project is currently under construction. We will be removing the vast majority of the endocrine disrupting compounds.

Todd Youngblood: Jim, I am listening to you talking about and alluding to all these different technologies. How do your people keep up with the pace of the changes and address the issues like the one in Clark County you just talked about?

Jim Jackson: Actually, the consulting engineering firms are keeping up with it and, through past work we’ve done with that, they would task us to achieve certain goals.

We work in concert with the ozone generator manufacturers. In fact, upstream from us, there are ultrafiltration systems and other systems, so the consulting engineering firms bring us all together as a design-build team, who then works in concert toward a common goal.

Todd Schnick: Are you guys exhibiting here? Is Mazzei exhibiting?

Jim Jackson: Yes.

Todd Schnick: Okay, so what are you all hoping to achieve at WEFTEC? Is it about regeneration, launching new products, market education, identifying new products? What are your goals here?

Jim Jackson: Fortunately for us, since many of the attendees are either vendors, customers, or consulting engineers, if nobody stops by our booth, we’ve already had a good show.

We are hoping to raise awareness of the emerging issues with wastewater and to gain more name recognition because, typically, the first time someone hears of Mazzei is when we show up in their plant as part of the system.

Todd Schnick: Okay, great. Jim, we are about out of time, but before we let you go, share with the audience how they can get more information about your organization and learn more about your work.

Jim Jackson: If you happen to be in South Hall, come see us in booth 1632. You can also visit us on the web at mazzei.net. That is www.mazzei.net.

Todd Schnick: Outstanding. It was a pleasure having you, Jim. Thanks for joining us on Water Online Radio.

Jim Jackson: Thank you.

Todd Youngblood: Thanks Jim.

Todd Schnick: Okay, that wraps up this segment. On behalf of Todd Youngblood, I am Todd Schnick. Water Online Radio will be right back.