Case Studies

Mountain View Grade School
Corvallis, Oregon
August, 2003

Contractors:
WWT, Inc. (Culligan of Albany, Oregon)
Judson’s Plumbing Inc. (Corvallis, Oregon)
Engineer:
Endex Engineering, Inc. (Corvallis, Oregon)

When Endex Engineering Inc. contacted Culligan with a special project, we worked together to form the perfect solution.

Mountain View Grade School, part of the Corvallis School District 509J, has been on a well water supply since it was built. The TDS (Total Dissolved Solids – This is a measurement of the dissolved minerals in the water supply) level of the water supply was in excess of 1780 mg/l. To bring this measurement into perspective, the City of Corvallis, Oregon reports that their product water TDS measurement averages 54 mg/l.

Upon testing from different locations within the building, the school district found that many of the tests had elevated levels of lead in the water. The source of the lead was determined to be coming from the old plumbing system, not the groundwater source. The Facility was re-plumbed by Judson’s Plumbing during the summer of 2003 using an innovative new product called PEX, a plastic piping product that does not leach any type of compound into the water supply.

Once the building was re-plumbed, Culligan went to work installing two major components of the new drinking water system. The first piece of equipment installed at the facility was a Culligan SM-60 water softener. The softener’s job is to remove the calcium and magnesium that were present in the water supply. A Culligan A-1 Plus Reverse Osmosis System (RO) was applied to lower the extremely high TDS level. After the water is treated with RO, the water is then sent to a 600 gallon bulk storage and re-pressurization system before being sent out to all the newly installed drinking fountains and kitchen facilities.

This is just one of the examples of how Culligan of Albany, Oregon is working together with its partners to provide our community with the best quality drinking water available. At Culligan you call, we answer!

Harmony Acres Mobile Court
Tangent, Oregon
April, 1998

Contractors:
WWT, Inc. (Culligan of Albany, Oregon)

Elevated levels of Nitrate plagued this small community’s water system for quite some time. It was discovered during a routine, yearly water test that Harmony Acres Mobile Court exceeded the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for Nitrates (NO3) at a detectable level of 11.5 mg/l. The Federal Safe Drinking Water Act prohibits any contamination of Nitrates in levels exceeding 10 mg/l.

A water sample was taken by Culligan of Albany and sent to the Federally Certified labs at Culligan International Company in Northbrook, Illinois. Upon the analysis, Culligan of Albany began the system design and engineering process.

Nitrate is a very soluble substance, it is easily dissolved in water and difficult to get out. There are two accepted methods of Nitrate removal. The first is through a process called Ion Exchange (Anion Exchange). The Nitrate trades places with another substance, commonly chloride, during this process. As water flows through an exchange tank, resin takes up Nitrate in exchange for chloride. A drawback to this system is that sulfates are also exchanged along with the nitrate diminishing the capacity of the resin to take out nitrate. Regeneration effluents must also be disposed of so the ground water supply is not re-contaminated with nitrate. These systems are also very expensive to operate, salt would need to be added in bulk weekly.

The second accepted method of Nitrate removal is through a process called Reverse Osmosis. Reverse Osmosis is a process where the input water is forced through a membrane under extreme pressure as it filters out 99.99% of the input water’s contaminants. The osmotic membrane, which reaches the highest practicable level of filtration, acts as a barrier not only to salts and inorganic substances, but also to organic substances whose molecular weight is greater than 100: it therefore provides an excellent defense against micro-pollutants, pesticides, pyrogens, viruses and bacteria that may also be found in the water supply.

Reverse Osmosis is a physical type of procedure that does not require the use of any chemicals. A feature of the Reverse Osmosis technology is its extreme flexibility, which makes it possible to design and manufacture custom made systems whenever it is not possible to solve a problem using the standard products available. Reverse Osmosis plays a role in the drinking water sector, and everything suggests that this trend is bound to become stronger in the future.

Culligan felt that the best application for Harmony Acres Mobile Court was the use of Reverse Osmosis technology for the reduction of Nitrate.

During the design and installation phase of this project, Culligan consulted closely with both the Linn County Department of Health Services – Environmental Health Program and the State of Oregon Department of Human Resources Health Division – Drinking Water Division on both plan and site reviews, which were immediately approved by both divisions.



The installed system included a Culligan Hi-Flo 3 HC – 210 water softener for calcium and magnesium removal. It acted as pre treatment for the Reverse Osmosis system. The next piece of equipment installed was a wall mounted Culligan Series A-3 Reverse Osmosis system. It would provide between 2,000 and 10,000 gallons of treated water per day. It was chosen because of its expandability, low operating costs, and dependability. A 2,000 gallon finish water storage tank was also included in this system. From here, the water is sent throughout the distribution system which included a new re-pressurization system. Digital Nitrate testing equipment was also furnished for the water system as per request by the State of Oregon.

Final project approval and verification was given to Culligan of Albany, Oregon and Harmony Acres Mobile Court from the State of Oregon Department of Human Services Health Division – Drinking Water Program and the Linn County Health Department on December 26, 2000.