The City of Oneonta in Alabama, USA, commissioned a 3 MGD (10,500 m³/d) MIEX® ion-exchange system in August 2012 to provide dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removal prior to coagulation and microfiltration of Oneonta Utilities’ Little Warrior river water source.
Oneonta is Alabama’s third municipality to install and commission a MIEX system and the second in the state to be followed by membrane filters.
The system will reduce disinfection byproduct levels in the city’s drinking water to allow the utility to meet federal and state drinking water quality requirements. Orica Watercare’s MIEX technology was selected by the city based on the results of a pilot-scale evaluation conducted at the water treatment plant.
Coupled with coagulation, the pretreatment more than doubled the plant’s DOC removal. The process is also expected to beneficially impact the plant’s downstream treatment process.
Orica says that all of these factors, along with the MIEX system’s low levels of energy consumption and residual production, contribute to the overall sustainability of the process, one of the many reasons for its selection by the utility.