As requested....short course on water towers..

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Is it just me or am I typing faster than this board can handle? wierd...

I posted this on another forum and some have requested I put this info here for further discussion...

One part of my services is Water Tower and Water Treatment Facility cleaning and stain removal. Yup, we are the guys that get up in te water towers and clean them...

Basically when water plant operators use a chemcial to combat a certain issue with their water there is always a by product. Just like when you are cleaning a house, stuff comes off of the house.. That is the byproduct of your cleaning..paint chips, mold, soap residue. etc...

The majority of water treatment plants use chlorine to combat many issues with their water and the by-product of chlorine is called THM's (click here for a better definition)

Now, THM's are highly carcinogenic.. which means cancerous.. if a citys water facility gets too high of a THM reading, they have to issue a letter to all of their customers saying that their water is carcinogenic.. Some of you may have recieved letters like this about YOUR water..and people ***** when they get that letter, as they should! It makes the plant operators life a living hell..just think 30,000 people calling to ask why they are paying for carcinogenic water!

Now, heres where we come in.. We can remove the chlorine by-products in the water treatment facility from the walls and floor and filter walls...we can't remove it from the water..We DON'T treat water, just tanks and filters!

Its very hard to get certified as a THM removal company, so we promote the fact that the city will pay for your serivices and the cleaning will pay for itslef over and over again many many times because they won't use NEAR as much chlorine in their water because the chlorine in the water tower is being used up to break down the bio-film on the walls of the tank instead of being used as a disinfectant..the problem with adding more and more chlorine to the water is that it DOES break down the biofilm and it clouds off into the water system raising the THM levels..

Less Biofilm = Less Chlorine

Less Chlorine = Less THMS and Taste/odor

Less Chlorine = Higher savings for the plant

I hope all of this is still making sense.. I can be of more help through e-mail if i need to..

so, basically we go in, drain the water tower, set up inside and clean the walls of all the biofilm..

Hot pressure washing can't do anything for this film..its like industrial paint.. i'm sure if you cranked up the PSI you colud get it (and the paint) off, but at 5500psi it wasn't budging.. and you can't strip the paint because the water can't be exposed to bare metal... the paint thats used is very special for the inside of a water tower and very expensive.... plus anything you touch inside of a water tower has to be disinfected afterwards..

we use a chemical designed for this.. SPECIFICALLY for this, not a fancy acid or anything harmful..

its a two part system.. a cleaner and a catalyst.. neither are harmful until mixed.. it will burn you a little..its designed to burn up organics... the waste water is neutralized..once the chemical hits the biofilm and clens, it is used up..it creates a non-hazardous waste that can be pumped out into the grass or hauled to the treatment facility. Plus it disinfects as it cleans..

If anyone is interested in doing this, please post with any questions...

Hers some normal questions i've had via e-mail on the other boards..

Q1.) How do you charge for it?

A1.) We asess how much the customer is spending on chlorine, their THM levels and how many towers, filters and clarifiers they have.. it usually can be done in one day if the planning is done correctly

Q2.) Whats the profit potential?

A2.) I've seen jobs bid out over $1,000,000 before. I can't list names of city because of upcoming bids with the companies but mostly in Louisiana. Most typical water towers (NOT ELEVATED!) will bid for around $18,000. That means that after you purchase equipment (which most of you already have) and chemical, you'd probably net around $13k for one day of work...

Q3.) My city only has elevated towers. The ones that look like a golfball on a tee. How do I do those???

A3.) this is why you find out before hand what the tower is like. Naturally you will want to charge more to clean the tower because of the hassle to get up there..Plus you will have to cover the cost of equipment to push the chemicals up 15-20 stories.

Q4.) What equipment will I need?

A4.) a low pressure wand is the best.. if you use high pressure, you'r wasting money.. you need that chemical on the wall and moving to make it work.. high pressure throws to much of the chemical onto the floor..a long handle brush ..not to scrub with, but to push the chemical around..work smart, not hard.. let the chemical do the work..(ladders, pw,etc.)

Q5.) Why can't I just use some pool cleaner or something on the walls.. the stains look similar to Iron.

A5.) Well the chemical has to be NSF certified for use in a water treatment facility or you can't make it past the front door..

the stains may look like iron, but only in color.. the stains on the filters (blackish red) are Pottasium Permangenate stains. A commmon chemical used to control taste and odor in mid summer from the decaying algae in the water source for the treatment plant..

Q6.)My water plant told me I was nuts for thinking they could drain their water tower to have it cleaned, they said the town would run out of water before they could get it refilled..

A6.) This is where your research comes in.. Most plant operators will be very helpful in getting you the info you need as to water usage.. find out when the LEAST amount of water is being used in the city from that particular tower.. THAT is when you clean.. A lot of time, its going to be between 1:00a.m. and 4:30 a.m. so be prepared to do some night time work... about 15% will be night time jobs because most cities can shut down one tower for repair and have that side of town fed from another tower thats been filled to capacity earlier that week..

Q7.) The city said that they just pay a diver to clean the towers every 5 years..

A7.) Divers are an integral part of a water treatment facilities maintenance program, but they can't get the biofilm off the walls unless they scrub.. the problem with scrubbing is that all that biofilm is clouded into the wtar.. not good.. they are good however at vaccumming dirt, droppings and paint chips off of the floor while the tower is full.. but with a 1x/year cleaning like this, you wont need a diver because there wont be aything on the floors unless someone opens the tower and throws stuff in..

Here are some pictures from an underground storage facility.

BEFORE

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After...

2 hours after entering...

A total of 5 hours downtime for the plant..

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after entering and seting up..

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Using a low PSI pump on a wand to put the chemical on...it melts it like butter

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does it look any better?

which tank would YOU want to drink from?

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Filter..

We cleaned one side for free.. Just to show them what it would do.. very stubborn city, but very wealthy.. so we did one for free.. we picked one that is shown every day on the Tours.. they give free tours to show how the plant runs.. I'm sure people stopped and asked everyday why that one was so much cleaner..

if you do one in the back of the plant where no one will see it, you've not done anyone any good.. do one up front that everyone has to see.. and make sure the other one thats next to it is really dirty..

very dramatic difference, huh?

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Here is another tank...

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Filter... Before

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During.... You oughta see the look on the face of the operator that been using a steel wool pad and borax (illegal -unless the flush and drain the filter afterwards) to try and clean it off, and it didn't work.. at all...

[One Tough Pressure 580]

Cale,

Thank you for starting this thread here. Very interesting information.

Question that you did not have in your list?

What amount of insurance do they require in your area?

What are the size of the tanks in the above pictures?

[marine_clean 14]

you can really see how well the chemical works on that last pic.. every place it was splashed turned clean instantly.. its almost like spray painting....everywhere the chemical hits, it turns colors..instantly..

AFTER

better?

[marine_clean 14]

Originally posted by One Tough Pressure

Cale,

Thank you for starting this thread here. Very interesting information.

Question that you did not have in your list?

What amount of insurance do they require in your area?

What is the size of the tank in the above pictures?

Everybody is different.. each state and city has different regulations.. there is very little to tear up inside a water tank but its ALWAYS good to have insurance.. ALWAYS..if an operator is there and breathes in some chemical after you told them the dangers, you can still be held liable for the two weeks of vacation he'll take!

i've seen anywhere from 300k to 1,000,000.. most carry 1,000,000 liability..

the tank we did in the first set was 2 mil. gallons

Here is a very interesting website on water towers and how they work..for anyone wanting to learn a little more..

[paul-uk 500]

looks like a good line of work to be in ..are you still doing it...look slike you might have to travel away from home if you did it all the time.

paul.

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yup..you spend quite a bit of time on the road doig this.. but the money is worth it and a lot of time, the cities have accounts setup with local hotels JUST for out-of-otown contractors.. we however take our travel trailer to the jobsite... its our mobile office and lab...

[ravewaves 14]

I am new on the forums and was curious if there was a way to see the pics with this post