South Florida Town Solves Color Challenges

by Tom Davis 
Tonka Equipment Company

Lantana Ion Exchange Plant

The Town of Lantana is located on the southeast coast of Florida, in an area that uses groundwater exclusively for its municipal water supply. The groundwaters in the area typically contain excessive iron, organically bound color compounds, and high hardness levels. Historically, the Town of Lantana had used chlorination and fi ltration to treat iron and color. The aggressive chlorination that was used unfortunately resulted in the formation of disinfection by-products (DBP) such as trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids – in concentrations that exceeded newly promulgated federal standards.


To address this problem, the Town considered installing membranes as a treatment alternative. But with reject rates as high as 20%, and costs nearly twice the allowable budget, membranes were difficult to justify. Withdrawal limitations imposed by the South Florida Water Management District contributed to ruling out membranes because of the high reject stream volumes. Membranes also have high capital and operating costs and would have resulted in a complete and costly re-work of the existing plant site. 

Illinois Rural Water Association recognizes Village of Ohio

by TJ Stroebl
Tonka Equipment Company

Ohio, IL treatment plant

Ohio, IL was recently awarded Runner-up Water Plant of the Year by the Illinois Rural Water Association.  The Village of Ohio is a small rural community in northern Illinois with well water requiring arsenic removal, color removal, iron removal and manganese removal.  Tonka designed and manufactured a 275 gpm Dualator® packaged treatment system incorporating aeration, detention, and filtration in one unit to remove the arsenic, iron and manganese followed by an Ion Exchange vessel to remove the color.  The system utilized arsenic co-precipitation with iron as the most cost effective arsenic removal  solution to comply with EPA regulations and provide the community with safe drinking water.  


Congratulations to Ohio, IL and their operator, Jim Lamkin!


Read a news article about the award:
http://www.bcrnews.com/2012/02/28/ohio-water-plant-selected-runner-up-plant-of-the-year/aeor5qs/

Filter Media Core Sampling

by Jeff Emerson 
Tonka Equipment Company



Let’s take a look at how to assess the health of your filter media!


Filter media has a typical life expectancy of 10–15 years. Based on your raw water quality and filter maintenance, media life can be shorter or longer.  Knowing the quality of your filter media will help to understand many performance and operational issues.  Tonka provides media analysis for filters or softeners at any time. Taking an accurate core sample is a critical step in having your filter media analyzed for quality.

Michigan Utilities Choose Co-Precipitation Arsenic Removal

by Rick Mann 
Tonka Equipment Company

There are several Best Available Technologies (BAT) for arsenic removal from potable water, and after careful consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of each, many Michigan water utilities have chosen Oxidation/Filtration, specifically in the form of Iron Co-Precipitation Filtration. Recently, Tonka has provided systems for Michigan communities that treat over 50 million gallons of water per day.

Arsenic Removal in Holly, MI

Airwash Blowers Operating Tips

by Dave Mielke
Field Service, Tonka Equipment Company


Moisture in your airwash blower?  This is the Number 1 cause of blower failure. 


The Sutorbilt or Turbotron blowers used by Tonka are large volume air supply blowers with pressure under 7 psi. These blowers are designed to run 24/7; however, when used as an airwash blower for the Simul-Wash™ cycle, their cycle duty is very infrequent and poses a different maintenance schedule.  The Tonka airwash blower is always started and stopped "dead headed" to  prevent water migration to the blower unit. 


The following simple maintenance rules should provide you with many years of trouble free operation of your airwash blower: