Even city water systems are utilizing the benefits of oxygenation systems for their residents. The public water system improvements described in the article below describes most of the elements used in the Oxygen Pools program. The below excerpt was taken from http://www.spartanburgwater.org/.
Spartanburg Water has excellent water sources for drinking water from both the North and South Pacolet Rivers.
- Spartanburg Water is currently installing a new piping system in Lake Bowen that will allow us to begin adding oxygen, our next step in the continuing strategy to provide excellent water quality to our customers and combat the algae that create taste-and-odor causing organisms, like MethylIsoborneol, or MIB.
- The reservoirs utilized by Spartanburg Water had a taste-and-odor episode of high MethylIsoborneol, or MIB, levels in 2015 and until Spartanburg Water applied an environmentally friendly algaecide that dropped the levels back down to zero.
- The oxygenation system delivers a constant feed of oxygen, ferric and alum through a strategically placed piping system along the bottom of the water bodies.
- In water bodies, algae blooms that create taste and odor constituents such as MIB typically grow as the result of a combination of factors: prolonged hot weather, a lack of rain and high levels of nutrients, including phosphorus and nitrogen, in the watershed runoff.
- A majority of algae are beneficial to ecosystems and are a natural part of the environment and good for the lakes and fish. We also have new technology in our lab that helps us classify the types of algae that may cause taste-and-odor concerns, thus allowing us to target our efforts.
- The oxygenation system being deployed is a best-practice in the preventative strategies needed to cut MIB off at its actual source—the algae that create it.
As of July 25, 2016, construction has begun on the oxygenation systems in Municipal Reservoir #1 and Lake Bowen. Please reference the map provided below showing areas to be restricted in Lake Bowen during construction of the system. The piping system will be moved from its assembly area around Highway 9 to its final installation location near Lake Bowen Dam from sunrise to about 1 p.m. on the dates listed below. On these dates, Spartanburg Water will be patrolling the area of Lake Bowen east of the Highway 9 bridge to ensure there are no impacts to the contractor during this time.
Reference: http://www.spartanburgwater.org/files/files/SpartanburgWaterFactSheet2016.pdf