Florida Treatment Plant Installs Ion Exchange Technology

The city of Bunnell, Fla., has taken action to provide high quality water to its citizens. The city recently installed the first full-scale MICo process with the goal of ensuring compliance with disinfection byproducts regulations as well as providing their citizens with the soft water that they desired.

The city of Bunnell is committed to meeting all U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations for safe drinking water, but the citizens have been without soft water since the lime softening plant was turned off several years ago. The state of Florida now utilizes 11 MIEX systems to help communities become compliant with Stage 2 disinfection byproducts regulations; however, until now, lime or membranes were used as a second step to produce soft water. This two-step process requires two times the capital and operational costs. In order to lower costs while providing high quality drinking water, the city of Bunnell reached out to Ixom Watercare (formerly Orica Waretercare Inc.) to develop a single-step process.

Ixom Watercare Inc. had been working on a process that would simultaneously soften and remove organics—a common challenge with Florida groundwater. The city commissioned a small-scale demonstration water treatment plant. There, Ixom engineers demonstrated that they could utilize a newly developed MIEX Plus resin to meet the challenge.

In the spring of 2012, the city of Bunnell invited the community to the small-scale water treatment plant for a demonstration, water taste test and approval of the overall water quality from this process.

In 2014, Ixom Watercare Inc’s MICo Sof ion exchange technology was selected by the city based on its ability to achieve the goals of the community, which were to become compliant with all EPA regulations and to soften the water. This option was also a cost saving solution for the city and the community.

“We are excited to work with the city of Bunnell to deliver the first MICO SOF plant in North America,” said Randy Cable, president of Ixom Watercare. “The folks at Bunnell have been incredible to work with and as an organization we appreciate the forward thinking and adoption of this industry changing process. We look forward to working with them for years to come and to showcase the new MICo Sof process.”

Source: Ixom Watercare