Ohio EPA Dye Study
On September 15 – 19, 2003, members of the Ohio EPA, Division of Surface Water, the Division of Environmental and Financial Assistance and the Ohio Rural Water Association evaluated the effectiveness of the SolarBee 10000W re-circulating pump at the Rockford, Ohio wastewater treatment system. Additional follow-up visits and testing also occurred on October 10, and October 20, 2003.
This report summarizes the testing procedure performed to evaluate the SolarBee 10000W along with the findings.
Identifying gentle mixing currents in a large basin that can be impacted by uncontrolled variables such as sunlight and surface wind action is difficult. Several tools with differing advantages for obtaining data were used to reduce the impacts from these variables. Drogues, rhodamine dye, and chemically profiling the pond were the tools used to measure the effects of the SolarBee on the re-circulation of the pond’s water column.
With the various methods used to monitor the mixing effect of the SolarBee throughout this evaluation it is still too complex to completely comprehend the direct impact the SolarBee has on mixing the pond.
However, even with these “uncontrollable” variables, the overall trend of the evaluation supports the SolarBee’s ability to impact the flow pattern within the pond.
Being able to distribute highly oxygenated and higher pH environments found at the surface levels of partial mix lagoons with the lower oxygenated concentrations and lower pH levels provides distinct advantages in increasing treatment capacity. The gentle mixing provided by the SolarBee reduces the loss of supersaturated oxygenated levels from an active algae population found in partial mix lagoon environments. The more effective use of this oxidative treatment capacity at a potentially significant decrease in electrical expense provides a more efficient treatment of the wastewater.