The City of San Fernando, California has selected Envirogen Technologies Inc. with a contract for the company’s SimPACK™ regenerable ion exchange (IX) treatment system, to be used to remove nitrate contaminants from water in its Well 3 groundwater extraction well.
As part of the award, Envirogen Technical Support staff will be onsite for assistance during installation and commissioning.
In addition to this new system, Envirogen was also selected to install an upgraded control package on Well 7A. The Well 7A SimPACK™ system, originally purchased in 2013 and installed by Envirogen, continues to be operated and maintained by Envirogen’s staff. The control panel upgrade will bring new features and improved performance to ensure continued, reliable operation.
The new Well 3 treatment system was designed to handle higher levels of nitrate compared to the previously installed Well 7A system. Once installed and operational, the City intends to blend the combined water sources from Well 3 and Well 7A, treating the combined nitrate concentration using the two treatment systems (existing and new).
The new system consists of three components:
- Pre-filtration using the company’s FluxFlo bag filters and bag filter housings to remove suspended solids greater than 5 microns
- SimPACK™ regenerable IX unit inside an engineered container to shelter the system from weather and tampering
- Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) featuring control logic to minimize waste rates and salt consumption
The SimPACK™ system is a multi-bed design operated in a staggered mode process. The staggered bed uses the company’s N+3 method, allowing all but three of the vessels to be online while two vessels are being regenerated and one vessel is in standby. This design provides system redundancy, as required by the California Water Resources Board (CWRB)-Division of Drinking Water, while producing a consistent effluent water quality that meets the target water quality requirements.
Nitrate levels are monitored using an online nitrate analyzer that can measure alternately between the influent and effluent sample points. The process of transitioning vessels from online to regeneration to standby is completely controlled by the PLC provided.
