Water, water everywhere … now what?
Cleaning with your pressure washer is great at removing dirt, but once it’s off your surfaces, it’s often mixed in with your water, creating a new issue to address. Waste water management and cleaning is a major issue in CLEAN, but there are many methods that make controlling and remediating soiled runoff water a breeze.
Managing Water
In most settings, not only is allowing waste water to drain into nearby runoff ponds or municipal drains a bad idea, it’s illegal. Local, state and federal laws that govern waste water require this water to be captured and treated before it can be returned to a drain or sewer. Fortunately, there are a number of different options to help contain water from your wash so you can handle it properly.
Storm drain covers help in settings where you’re washing near a central drainage point. These mats simply block the drain and allow water to collect without flowing into sewer or drainage lines. Berms can also help channel water and contain it within a selected area so that you can collect and treat it.
Other options include vacuum booms that collect water as you wash and oil-absorbent mats that can soak up oils and grease while you wash for simple disposal. Get even more ideas for management in our previous blog.
Water Treatment Techniques
Once you’ve collected the water, you’ve still got the other half of the job – treatment. At Hotsy of Southern California, we offer a wide variety of options to help make treatment simple and easy.
Flocculent Treatment
Dry flocculant treatment uses a proprietary polymer system to capture heavy contaminants and leave behind clean water. This option leaves behind a sludge of filtered wastes that can be easily disposed of – often as a non-hazardous material – and works well even in waste water with a high concentration on solid matter. Learn more about flocculent treatment.
Chemical Coagulation and Electrocoagulation
Two additional options from Water Maze are chemical coagulation and electrocoagulation. In chemical coagulation, water is treated with proprietary compounds that cause wastes to clump together and solidify, removing them from their dissolved state and allowing them to be collected for disposal, leaving behind water that can be recycled or disposed in a sanitary sewer. With electrocoagulation, an electrolytic cell inside a treatment tank works in conjunction with a small amount of chemical polymer to cause a similar clumping and collection of solid wastes, leaving only recycled water behind for reuse or discharge. Learn more about both options.
Bioremediation
Bioremediation uses nature to filter wastes from water, starting with a large filtration screen to remove large contaminants before draining into an organic breeding tank where aerobic bacteria multiply as they devour hydrocarbon-based soils. This natural process eliminates the hazards and converts these soils into simple water and carbon dioxide byproducts, leaving simply treated water that can be drained and disposed. Learn more about bioremediation.
Mechanical Filtration
One of the most traditional methods of filtering water is using mechanical filtration. This process relies on a series of filtration steps and pumps to move water through smaller and smaller filtration materials that capture, collect and contain wastes, allowing clean water to emerge at the other end of the system. Different designs are available that allow for the management of small or large volumes of water so you can choose the option at scale with your usage. Learn more about mechanical filtration choices.
Oil-Water Separation
Finally, for those who frequently deal with oil-contaminated water, an oil-water separator makes the cleaning of dirty runoff simple. Using oleophilic – oil-loving, or the opposite of the oleophobic materials used on smartphones – plates, water enters a tank, collects on the plates and allows cleaned water to move on for final filtration of solids and disposal or drainage. Learn more about oil-water separators.
Find the Right Option at Hotsy of Southern California