ZENON Receives Purchase Order For Largest Wastewater Treatment Plant
OAKVILLE, Ontario - ZENON's (TSX: ZEN and ZEN.A) largest project to date for wastewater treatment will be the expansion of the Gwinnett County F. Wayne Hill Water Resources Center in Georgia. The company originally announced in January 2003 that it had received a letter of intent to provide its membrane technology to treat 40 million gallons of wastewater per day.
By the end of 2005, Gwinnett County is expected to have the largest ZeeWeed® based tertiary treatment facility in the country. The existing wastewater treatment plant is a water reclamation facility that currently treats 20 million gallons of wastewater per day, and is based on a traditional approach to wastewater treatment.
According to Adam Minchey, Director, Engineering and Construction for Gwinnett County, although the plant is meeting all current standards, the choice was made to adopt ZENON's ZeeWeed® membrane technology because of its performance and cost effectiveness, in addition to the fact that membranes provide potential benefits for future improvements to processes. "We would like to enhance the quality of life for our residents as well as improve our surrounding environment," said Mr. Minchey, "and membranes will allow us to achieve both."
Currently, a portion of the treated effluent is being used for landscape irrigation and the remainder discharged directly to the Chattahoochee River, downstream of Lake Lanier, a drinking water source. Eventually, Gwinnett County plans to discharge the treated effluent directly to Lake Lanier.
"Using ZeeWeed® membranes will produce a high level of water quality that will be able to meet increasingly stricter standards," continued Mr. Minchey. "This technology has been proven and is also being used in other parts of the world to augment additional drinking water supplies particularly in water short regions."
Two other Georgia communities have also made the decision to go to membranes for wastewater treatment. The City of Woodstock Rubes Creek Water Reclamation Facility has been incurring significant fines for its inability to meet existing permit requirements for the quality of effluent being discharged into Rubes Creek. One of the factors stems from overflow situations that have resulted from increasing growth in the community.
City Council decided to retrofit and expand the plant, which is currently using a non-membrane system that treats 0.5 million gallons of wastewater per day, to a ZeeWeed® membrane system that will treat 1.5 million gallons per day, with the possibility of future expansion. ZENON's technology makes it easy to retrofit the plant by using the existing tanks for the plant expansion, without disturbing ongoing plant operations. The project is set for completion by the end of 2003.
The Pooler Wastewater Treatment Facility in Pooler, Georgia currently treats 1 million gallons per day. After a decision was made to build a new larger plant due to growth in the area, membranes were the technology of choice. The new facility is designed to treat 2.5 million gallons per of wastewater per day.
One of the key reasons for this decision was the opportunity to reuse the treated effluent. Currently, the plant discharges into the Hardin Canal, adjacent to the site. However, there are future plans to reuse the water for irrigation. The plant is expected to be complete by September 2004.
ZENON is a world leader in providing advanced membrane products and services for water purification, wastewater treatment and water reuse to municipalities and industries worldwide. With hundreds of installations in over 30 countries, ZeeWeed® is Everywhere!
The 2003 recipient of the prestigious Stockholm Industry Water Award, ZENON was selected because of the company's innovative approaches to the development of water and wastewater process technologies, contributions to environmental improvement through improved performance in production processes.
Chosen as Canada's Top Exporter of the year, ZENON has also been selected as one of Canada's Top 100 Employers for the third consecutive year. A S&P/TSX Composite company, ZENON Environmental Inc. trades under the symbols ZEN and ZEN.A. Additional information is available at the Company's web site www.zenon.com.