AdEdge Wins Montana Project of the Year

Our main goal with any project is always clean, safe drinking water—but a little recognition is always nice too! This past year, AdEdge designed a water system to provide a Montana community access to cleaner, safer drinking water, and that system was recently named the state’s project of the year.

The groundwater system in Great Falls, Mont., had exceeded the acceptable arsenic level since 2004. In 2008, the system, which serves more than 500 people, was placed under an administrative order from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for its arsenic levels that exceeded EPA standards.

In addition to the possible negative health effects for the community, the water district was about to face large fines for lack of compliance with the arsenic limits. In November 2009, Gore Hill contacted AdEdge to design a treatment system to remove the arsenic and iron from two water treatment plant wells.

At the time AdEdge was brought in, the raw water for Plant #1 had an average arsenic level of 18 ppb and an iron level of 1.39 mg/L and Plant #2 had an average arsenic level of 21 ppb and an average iron level of 4.51 mg/L. To put that in perspective, the EPA’s maximum contaminant levels for arsenic and manganese are 10 ppb and 0.3 mg/L, respectively.

Jason Parris, project manager for the Gore Hill project, explained why arsenic can be such a dangerous contaminant.

“Arsenic is a known carcinogen and is linked to problems with skin and the circulatory system,” he said. “Arsenic in drinking water is at very low levels, but prolonged exposure can lead to these symptoms.”

AdEdge designed two treatment systems, each with a skid-mounted AD26 oxidation and filtration package unit. Each site also received a recycle backwash system that reclaims the backwash wastewater and removes the contaminants as a non-hazardous sludge that can be safely disposed of.

What a difference a year makes! The system was started up in April 2011 and since then, both the iron and arsenic levels have been reduced to non-detectable levels. And AdEdge remains on standby to provide any assistance to the district when needed.

All that hard work paid off. Not only did AdEdge help ensure that the community had clean, safe drinking water, in February, Montana Rural Water Systems honored the Gore Hill Water District with the Outstanding Water Treatment System of the Year award. AdEdge was grateful to be part of that accomplishment.

“AdEdge was very proud of the Gore Hill System,” Parris said. “The contractor and engineer involved did a great job on the design and installation.  The system has been shown off many times by the operators.”

To read more about the Gore Hill project, click here.