Michael is a project engineer with Goodwyn Mills Cawood. He has been with GMC 4 years and is a licensed PE. He specializes in water and wastewater hydraulics, modelling and master planning and has been recognized a technical expert in his field. He presented "Planning With Aquifer Storage and Recovery" last year at the South Carolina Environmental Conference.

A utility is under lot of pressure when starting water production for the first time. There is a lot at stake when commissioning a greenfield water treatment facility, made harder in the middle of a global pandemic. In this situation, it can be tempting to jump to the first fix instead of evaluating options.

Laurens County Water and Sewer Commission in South Carolina hired Goodwyn Mills Cawood and a CMAR to build a 4.0 MGD, high-ratable to 6.0 MGD water treatment facility on Lake Greenwood. Part of the design was an advanced oxidation pretreatment system to combat taste and odor. During startup and commissioning, the side-stream ozone injection pumps would repeatedly vapor lock. With seasonal taste and odor issues beginning in Lake Greenwood, it was critical to have pretreatment operational. Naturally, everything about the system comes into question.

This presentation is a case study of how cooperation, level-headedness, and first principles guided the client, consultant, and contractor to diagnose and solve the problem. This is a classic example of identifying a problem, developing tests, and using hydraulic fundamentals to provide a solution.