Drinking Water Project

Check out our youtube video that shows a sample water tower inspection with a remote underwater camera.  Click on or copy and paste this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwYYeHNviGI , this is raw video without the voice over just to give you an idea of what our underwater inspection videos look like. We will have new video soon!

Visit the home page for “Water IQ: Know Your Water” — the campaign that educates utility customers and businesses about their water sources and provides simple tips on how to be more efficient with water. The rapid population growth in Texas, booming economic development and—for many parts of Texas—the worst drought in 50 years means water is in greater demand than ever before. As consumers, we need to use our limited water supplies efficiently no matter how much it rains.The good news is it doesn’t take much effort. If everyone does their part, we can make our water last.Go to http://www.wateriq.org/ or  http://www.wateriq.org/about.php

Ron Perrin Water Technologies is proud to sponsor this blog.  Our goal is to get people thinking about their water and allow utility officials to understand all of the choices they have when it comes to Inspecting and cleaning potable water storage tanks and towers. Our American owned, Texas based company offers Remote camera, ROV camera and Advanced Commercial Diving Services to the Northeast, Southeastern, Midwest and Southwest states. Although we are not an Engineering company we often ware contracted by Engineering & consulting firms to provide underwater services in the U.S. Our advanced diving and inspection services have been contracted in 5 states in the U.S. and we have done one International job to date in Mexico.  Our state of the art potable water tank inspection methods deliver the most information for the least cost.  When our inspection reveals high sediment levels our advanced potable water cleaning service removes sediment while it remains in a simi liquid form.  These underwater services save treated drinking water and allowing our customers to maintain the healthyest water system possible.  Call us for a free quote today, toll free at 1-888-481-1768 or visit our web site at www.ronperrin.com

Here are a few photos of divers cleaning potable water storage tanks.

 The diver moving this sediment out of the tank was working in water with ZERO visability.  I think its safe to say that none of us expect our drinking water to look like this! 

Since 1992 divers have been a part of keeping water tanks clean in Texas.  Divers are washed down with a 200ppm chlorine solution using gear that is purchased for and only used in potable water.  No part of the divers body touches the water.  Using a specially equipped  pump or air lift system they are then able to remove the sediment from the floor of the tank.   This is the most effective way to clean a potable water storage tank because it removes sediment that can be a habitat for bacteria and other contaminants.  Everything that is loose is removed  without damage to painted surfaces. This allows the chlorine in the system to more effectively do its job. 

It was hard to beleve we were cleaning a potable water tank a few weeks ago the sediment made the water we were removing from the floor of the tank look like rusty chocolate milk.  The photo below gives you a vew from the top of the tank.  The dark sediment was so thick it blew the blue discharge hose, you can see it being pumped out.

For More information on this process visit  www.ronperrin.com Or call 1-888-481-1768

 We all have a duty to conserve water.  For most of us that means not watering your lawns in the hot part of the day or not running the dishwasher when it is only ½ full.  But for those in charge of water storage hundreds of thousands of gallons of fresh “TREATED” drinking may be at risk every time a water storage tank or tower is inspected or cleaned. The traditional way to inspect a water storage tank has been to drain it and put someone inside to take a look.  This has been a very expensive process and therefore put off or just not done at all.  When a storage tank is drained often as much as 1/3 of the water is lost. On many systems the last third of the tank will not have enough pressure to continue to flow to customers.  On a 500,000 gallon tank that could be as much as a 166,000 gallons of water.  I have only seen a few systems that did not loose a great deal of water every time they take a tank out of service.  That is bad enough, but we have only begun to spend time money and water to perform an inspection in a traditional manner.

Next, a person must enter the facility to take a look around.  The tank is dark, it is hard to see anything,  It is much like entering a big cave with no lights.  The sunlight blaring in from the open hatch allows a part of the floor to be seen but makes the remainder of the tank even harder to see with a flashlight.  If the walls are corroded they may be dark and near impossible to photograph for a report. The inspector is stuck to the ladder and the floor of the tank it is hard to see important inspection points like the normal waterline and inside roof.  In addition to that anyone who enters this type of confined space is a great risk if air quality samples are not taken.  Utility workers inspecting tanks have found themselves short of breath, some have even lost consciousness and died.  Any confined space is dangerous.  You wouldn’t think about a large container that had safe drinking water in it being deadly.  But it is. 

There are a lot of things going on in a steel water tank once it has been drained of the fresh drinkable water.  Here are just two to think about.  First a chlorine has been used to treat the water a residue is left coating the walls, on a hot day the sun warming the tank on the outside can turn this chlorine residue into a deadly gas.  Second if the tank is corroded the exposed iron residue from the corrosion and exposed metal will deplete oxygen.  When the oxygen in the tank is depleted to less than 12% the tank becomes a death trap.     That explains some of the risk, but we still haven’t talked about the cost.  After the inspector leaves the tank the tank is contaminated.  To meet AWWA standards it must be decontaminated from him or her walking around in a tank we drink from.  Here comes the real cost of time money and water. The tank must be filled with water, super chlorinated to kill any contamination then drained filled again and tested for purity.

Since 1992 I worked for hundreds of water utilities helping them inspect and clean thousands of water storage tanks.  I have only seen one utility that performed air quality testing before personnel entered a drained water storage tank.  That was on a Naval Air Station.  The fact is the right equipment needed to enter a drained water storage facility is expensive, seldom used and almost never provided by most water utilities.  Larger water utilities have their own labs to make sure the water is super chlorinated to proper levels and then again when the tank is filled to return to service.  But smaller utilities are forced to use labs that may be on the other side of the county or the other side of the state costing the utility even more time with their tank out of service while they wait for results. 

Ron Perrin Water Technologies has a better solution. We do not drain water tanks to do inspections, EVER.  Instead of placing personnel at risk, wasting time, money and water we use remote cameras to go in and take a look.     

We have developed a inspection method that uses a remote high resolution underwater video cameras along with a underwater lighting system that allows you to see the inside roof, waterline areas, inside wall and the floor of the tank.  The camera is purchased for and only used in potable water, before each use it is washed down with a 200ppm chlorine solution to meet AWWA standards.  The inspection is recorded and narrated on a DVD.  This allows administrators to have more information about what is going on in their water system than if they personally placed themselves at risk and went inside the tank with a flashlight and camera.

 Photo: Remote Underwater Video Camera & Lighting System.

Our inspection method has been developed and refined since 1997.  We have thousands of successful inspections completed, delivering the most information about water storage tanks at a fraction of the cost all while saving millions of gallons of fresh water in the process.    Other services include ROV (remotely operated vehicle) inspections, and Diver inspections.  When a tank has sediment that needs to be removed we also provide in-service cleanings.  For more information see www.ronperrin.com