Case Study: Transforming a County School System’s HVAC Water Treatment Program

A Successful Partnership with Bond Water Technologies

The Challenge:

A large school district in Virginia partnered with Bond Water Technologies to overhaul their HVAC water treatment program—and the results have been outstanding. This system includes 33 schools with cooling towers and closed-loop systems and 43 additional schools with closed-loop only systems.

Upon inspection, we identified several critical issues:

• 66% of the chemical feed systems were defective and were failing in one capacity or another.
• Chemical feed stations had leaking chemical spills and poor housekeeping.
• Cooling tower systems and chillers showed severe scaling buildup.
• Inadequate biocide treatment programs led to elevated bacteria counts.
• Lack of proper Legionella mitigation strategies.
• No routine scheduling with the customer and poor communication & data collection.

Our Solution & Successes:

Bond Water Technologies quickly developed a comprehensive water treatment program, addressing these issues with the following solutions:

System Repairs & Inventory Management: We repaired all chemical feed systems and created a spare parts inventory to ensure ongoing system reliability.

Safety & Compliance: Chemical feed stations were cleaned up, and SDS sheets were properly posted to maintain compliance.

Improved Bacteria Control: Cooling tower bacteria counts were significantly reduced by transitioning to ATP monitoring, allowing for real-time responses to bacterial activity.

Advanced Biocide Program: We switched to a more effective biocide program:

• Stabilized liquid bromine (oxidizing biocide) fed three days per week, maintaining 1–1.5 ppm of free chlorine for 4 hours.
• Isothiazoline (non-oxidizing biocide) fed weekly at 200 ppm with proper lockout times.

Legionella Mitigation: Implemented a pre-cleaning disinfection and a post-cleaning disinfection using our Bond Provox treatment to prevent biofilm/sludge deposition.

Proactive Maintenance & Reporting:

• Service visits were added to the county’s PM schedule and marked as completed after each visit.
• Our Bond 007 Reports provided analytical trending, enabling the customer to make informed decisions on repairs and system upgrades.

The Customer’s Feedback:

After one year of service, we received this message from the county’s facilities manager:

“I wanted to take a second to pass along a comment from an email that one of our HVAC contractors sent that I believe speaks volumes for the work you all have done this past year.

Noticed a very dramatic difference they are seeing on the cooling towers. He reports that the new chemical control is night vs. day compared to the prior service provider. They are seeing major scale elimination when the towers are getting cleaned, far more so than in previous years.”

Thanks again for your continued efforts in bettering our water treatment program.”

Looking for a Reliable Commercial Water Treatment Partner?

If your organization needs a proactive and data-driven water treatment partner, Bond Water Technologies is here to help. Our expertise in cooling tower and closed-loop system maintenance ensures efficient, safe, and cost-effective operation.

Contact us today by sending an email to Info@Bondwater.com.

Get Ahead Of Fall Maintenance With Bond’s Fall Water Treatment Checklist!  

Prepare Your Facility With Bond’s Expertise!

As the colder months approach, now is the perfect time to ensure your facility is performing at its best. Bond Water Technologies is here to assist with Cooling System Lay-up Recommendations and our trusted services. Use our comprehensive Fall System Lay-up Checklist to keep your systems running smoothly and efficiently throughout the season.

Here’s How We Can Help:

 Cooling System Lay-Up: Prepare your cooling system for winter storage now to avoid costly repairs and downtime due to corrosion and bacteria buildup in the spring.

 Tower Turbo Cleaning Kits: Maximize cooling tower efficiency with our specialized cleaning kits.

Algae Guards: Prevent biological growth and keep your water systems clear and clean.

Heat Exchanger Cleanings: Enhance heat exchanger performance and extend its lifespan with professional cleanings.

Legionella Testing: Stay compliant with health regulations and ensure safe water systems with expert Legionella testing.

GSA Drinking Water Testing: Maintain high standards for drinking water quality with GSA-approved testing services.

Contact Bond now to schedule your service and protect your facility for the upcoming season. Don’t delay—prepare your systems before the cold hits!

Look for more detailed information about each service at the links above.

GSA DRINKING WATER TESTING SAMPLING & REPORTING GUIDELINES

Basic GSA drinking water testing guidelines in identifying outlets. 

Note: When it comes to GSA drinking water testing guidelines in smaller facilities where 10% calculates to less than 5 outlets/fixtures, a minimum of 5 outlets shall be tested.  If there are less than 5 applicable outlets/fixtures, then test all outlets/fixtures to reach your 5 minimum. This is the only instance where you would test bathroom sinks. Outlets with automatic mixing valves are excluded.  If a facility has less than a total of 5 outlets/fixtures where you fall short of the 5 minimum, just make a note of this in your summary report.

Example:  The lease space has 16 sinks, 1 cafe sink, nurses office sink, 3 drinking fountains, 1 high low drinking fountain and 4 showers.  How many tests are needed?

In this case, you would test a minimum of 5 outlets for all the water quality parameters (lead/copper, legionella, coliform), 1 shower for legionella only, and the nurse’s office sink for legionella only.  See more details on GSA drinking water testing below.                                                                                                                            

• Per GSA, tag out the outlet/fixture prior to testing for at least 8 hours and no more than 18 hours.  GSA recommended labels are recommended for the isolated outlet fixture (attached separately).  Recommend that they maintain their current flushing PM program in accordance with their Water Management Plan until the outlet/fixture is tagged out of service.                                                                                                                                   
• Identify all applicable outlets and locations. You will need a schematic of these locations along with the results at the tested outlets/fixtures. When pulling samples, do not flush the outlet/fixture. For showers, Child Care Centers, Health Units sample the hot water side for Legionella testing.  For the 10% water outlets/fixtures that are tested for Legionella, lead, copper, and total coliform your “first draw” should be for the metals sample with your “second draw” for the Legionella/coliform sample.                                                                                                                    
• Take pictures of the bar codes on the sample bottles and the corresponding outlet/fixture(s) that you have on the chain of custody. You will need these pictures for your GSA report that you send to the customer.                                                                                        
• Once you get the results back from EST, use the GSA report example (attached separately) to complete for the customer. This should be completed as soon as possible.
• Any exceedances for Legionella, lead, copper, coliform must be reported to the customer within 24 hours. Simply forward the report to the customer noting the exceedances.  The outlet/fixture needs to be isolated and not put in use.  Recommend that they follow their PM schedule for flushing in accordance with their Water Management plan and to notify us when they would like to schedule a retest for the exceedance.  Please reference the following:

To Learn More About GSA’s Drinking Water Testing Guidelines, Click Here And Read GSA’a Real Estate Facilities Management Water Quality Management Fact Sheet

Contact us today by sending an email to Info@Bondwater.com.

You can also complete our Request for Information form below.

Sustainability Spotlight for Wastewater Landfill Sludge Reduction Project

Project Summary:

Bond Water Technologies was approached by a large national food processing plant to help manage their wastewater sludge reduction plan. The plant estimates a daily sludge haul of 3,000 gallons (3% solids) from its wastewater treatment process, incurring $500K in sludge hauling costs alone in 2023. The project aims to reduce daily sludge hauls, landfill additions, and associated carbon emissions from trucking transportation.

Project Implementation Steps:

1. Evaluation of Current Process and Investigation:

• • Assessed the existing process, which includes an EQ tank (250K) feeding centrifuges before chemical treatment to remove solids, with an average 35% solids rendered into feed for livestock.
  • Initiated an investigation into the possibility of sending sludge generated from the treatment process to the centrifuges for removal via rendering, aiming to eliminate landfill disposal and reduce transportation mileage.

2. Evaluation of Chemical Treatments:

• • Identified GRAS approved chemistries for coagulant and polymer treatment to enable rendering of treated sludge. 

3. Development of Chemical Feed System:

• • Created an automatic chemical feed system to adjust with varying strengths of incoming wastewater streams, preventing under and overfeeding of chemistry.
  • Utilized a TSS monitoring feed system to base feed all chemistry at the lowest end of the feed range, automatically adjusting as incoming TSS increased.

4. Installation of Sludge Recirculation Pump:

• • Installed a sludge recirculation pump and feed pump to mix the sludge tank and provide a consistent percent solids feed to the centrifuges.

5. Automatic Adjustment of Polymer Feed:

• • Addressed variations in percent solids from the sludge tank due to decanting by automatically adjusting polymer feed for thickening.
  • Added an additional TSS probe to the centrate tank of the centrifuges connected with the variable-speed polymer feed system to automatically adjust polymer feed to varying conditions and target a solids capture rate.

Project Outcomes:

• The facility earned “The Most Improved Industrial Pre-Treatment Award”.
• Successfully implemented feeding sludge to the centrifuges, resulting in significant achievements:
  • Reduced sludge hauls from daily to monthly, with an estimated monthly landfill reduction of 87,000 gallons.
  • Projected monthly mileage reduction in trucking transportation of 3,000 miles, leading to an associated CO2 reduction of 5,610 pounds per month.

References:

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle: Questions and Answers – Fact Sheet (EPA-420-F-23-014, June 2023)

The Possible Connection Between COVID-19 Shutdowns and Increased Risk of Legionnaires’ Disease

In August, the Alliance to Prevent Legionnaires’ Disease held a virtual conference to identify a possible connection between COVID-19-related shutdowns and increased risk of Legionnaires’ disease.

The leading cause of reported waterborne disease in the United States, the Legionella bacteria accounts for about 60% of outbreaks over the last 10 years. In 2018, almost 10,000 cases of Legionnaires’ were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — the highest rate ever seen in the U.S. — though some scientists believe this could be a vast underestimate, claiming that the annual case count could be closer to 70,000. Sadly, 10% of people who get Legionnaires’ disease die from the infection.

However, the federal government is reporting an almost 50% decline in cases this year despite the fact that COVID-related shutdowns are likely to increase the risk of Legionella contamination.

Why Might the COVID-19 Pandemic Increase the Risk of Legionella Contamination?

Since the 1976 Philadelphia Legionnaires Convention legionellosis outbreak, our understanding of the sources and risks of the Legionella bacteria has expanded. We know that the bacteria can multiply in stagnant water. And as building water systems resume operation following the COVID-19 shutdowns — during which water usage was reduced or ceased — contamination is more likely. In other words, disruptions to normal water usage patterns result in stagnant water with diminished disinfectant levels and legionella testing, allowing bacteria to grow unnoticed.

Furthermore, national and global attention has been hyper-focused on the COVID-19 pandemic — for good reason — but the Alliance warns that this targeted attention could be overshadowing Legionnaires’ cases, particularly because the symptoms can be so similar. In fact, they fear that the focus on COVID-19 could be exacerbating the underreporting of Legionnaires’ and potentially leading to misdiagnoses.

Says Brad Considine, Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Alliance, “Given the historical trends and increased risks posed by COVID-19 shutdowns and recent re-openings, we are confident Legionnaires’ cases are on the rise this year.”

Legionella Testing to Stop the Spread

As facilities open back up, it’s critical that testing and cleaning are completed immediately and thoroughly. Legionella bacteria tend to thrive primarily in warm, wet environments such as plumbing systems and cooling towers.

While some states and municipalities do have guidelines for monitoring Legionella, only New York has passed legislation in an attempt to prevent Legionella. At this time, there are no other federal or state regulations that mandate routine monitoring. We recommend that industrial facilities implement a Legionella control and management program, including routine cooling tower cleaning.

For more information on how you can minimize Legionella growth in your building water systems and prevent infection, give us a call today. We have the commercial and industrial water treatment solutions you need to keep your business safe and successful.