Water Softening Case Study: City Of Waupun Water Treatment System

When the city of Waupun began to experience water quality issues, Waupun Utilities sought new technology to replace the city's aging water softening facility. "The water softening facility was quite outdated and had reached the end of its useful life," noted Steve Schramm, treatment facilities supervisor for Waupun Utilities. "In addition, we had no equipment redundancy, causing repair and reliability issues."

Waupun's raw water is relatively hard due to the presence of dissolved calcium and magnesium. In addition to providing poor soap lathering, leaving a salty residue in hair after shampooing, and coating tea and coffee pots, hard water can have a significant adverse effect on community infrastructure. For example, hard water causes scaling that can clog pipes and decrease the lifespan of water heaters and toilet flushing units. Water hardness can also have a negative effect on industry, causing boiler breakdowns and problems with cooling towers or other equipment that comes in contact with water.