Arizona adopts UV disinfection for golf and homes

UV treated wastewater is irrigating the two golf courses of the Arizona "Family Friendly Town", Anthem, and UV also plays a part behind the scenes in the drinking water supply system

Founded less than 10 years ago, Anthem, a town just north of Phoenix, now has a population of over 40,000.

It was voted the "best place to raise a family" by Parenting Magazine in 2003 and "one of the best places to live in Arizona" by Phoenix Magazine.

As part of its rapid expansion the town recently installed Aquionics UV disinfection technology to ensure its water and wastewater is as clean as possible.

The closed chamber, medium pressure UV systems allow the town to not only meet increased demands in its water and wastewater treatment capacity, but also to exceed the output quality standards needed.

Two local golf courses are currently using a combination of UV treated wastewater and fresh river water for irrigation.

With the increase in population, it is expected that the courses will soon be using wastewater exclusively.

"We have two treatment plants, one for drinking water and one for wastewater," explained wastewater Foreman Jeff Marlow: "The drinking water is treated by three PMD systems, handling a combined flow of 7 MGD*, while the wastewater is treated by three InLine systems handling a combined flow of 3 MGD.

Both the water and wastewater systems work in conjunction with microfiltration, while the wastewater plant also uses nitrification/denitrification.

We chose the Aquionics UV systems as they exceed local water and wastewater quality standards," added Marlow: "By reducing our dependence on chlorination, the water treatment units also allow us to minimise the output of chlorination by-products like Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM), while the wastewater systems are optimised to meet the upcoming Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (AZPDES) Permit Program".

Maintenance on the system is minimal, with periodic replacement of the UV lamps carried out easily by on-site staff.

An automatic cleaning mechanism keeps lamp sleeves free of organic deposits for consistent UV dosing.

Each chamber is also fitted with UV monitors to measure actual UV dose for record keeping.

With the addition of an optional online transmittance monitor, real time transmittance values are used to automatically adjust the dose pacing of the UV system.

Aquionics, a Halma Company, is a market leader in the manufacture, application and development of UV technology for progressive, non-chemical disinfection and microbiological control.

The company systems are used in a wide variety of applications including water and wastewater treatment, pharmaceutical and semiconductor manufacturing, food and beverage processing, brewing, and aquaculture.

*Million gallons per day.

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