Clean Drinking Water in Georgetown County

Drinking water treatment is one of the most important public tasks worldwide. Even where fresh water is available in sufficient quantities, the water must be clarified, filtered, and disinfected to make it safe for human consumption and for supplying to drinking water systems. There is also no shortage of available water in Georgetown County in the U.S. state of South Carolina, which lies directly on the Atlantic Ocean. A number of rivers together form an estuarine delta here, including expansive marshy areas.

The Georgetown County Water and Sewer District Public Water Utility has been operating since 1967. It is responsible for supplying more than 20,000 households and established industrial and commercial enterprises. Among other things, GCWSD operates a drinking water treatment plant, which recently required replacement of aging equipment. These updates included a replacement of their vertical inclined-blade flocculators, which had reached the end of their useful life.

In their search for a high-performance replacement that could solve the problems associated with the accumulation of solids in the flocculation basin, while still maintaining good floc formation, the managers found what they were looking for through our local representative, DXP Premier Water of Charlotte, North Carolina. They ultimately offered the INVENT HYPERCLASSIC Flocculators, the world's leading technical product for this application.

The HYPERCLASSIC Flocculator utilizes a hyperboloid shape to effectively balance the amount of mixing energy required to prevent settling in the floc basins, while simultaneously minimizing floc shear. The hyperboloid shape allows for a gradual acceleration of the floc particles to gently transfer the mixing energy to the particles and prevent breakage.

After the first year of operation the plant staff inspected the new hyperboloid flocculators and found almost no settling or build-up in the flocculation basins, even when using lime for pH adjustment. This was a welcome change for maintenance staff from the previous equipment, which used to cause significant settling and sludge buildup.