-Dave Linville Is the VP General Manager of Aqua Smart Inc, the creator and exclusive global manufacturer of SeaQuest. Dave is an experienced operator within the water / chemicals business focused on delivering Aqua Smart’s core mission: Everyone Deserves Clean Water. After graduating from Ohio State University with a BS. Chemical Engineering, he moved to Atlanta to work for GE Water & Process Technology after their acquisition of Betz Dearborn. Dave received his MBA from Emory University and worked with another chemical company in Atlanta, BWA Water Additives, starting in 2010. At BWA he led the US sales team, and then the Americas Oil & Gas division. Prior to joining Aqua Smart, Dave was the VP Global Operations for Mayzo, a private chemical additive company in Atlanta. Aqua Smart Inc. was purchased by Colonial Group Inc. in 2020, which makes us a part of a 100 year old private family business. Dave enjoys tennis, running & skiing, and lives in Atlanta with his wife and three children.

Limiting corrosion, scale and bacteria are common challenges for drinking water operators. Removing phosphorus is a common challenge for wastewater treatment operators. These  issues continue to become more challenging in the face of new regulations, technologies, monitoring capabilities and public awareness. What has emerged is an acute focus on individual water quality parameters, often in isolation. Solving one problem introduces another. In the US, this issue is addressed in the revised lead / copper rule[1]: “The water system must evaluate the effect of the chemicals used for corrosion control treatment on other drinking water quality treatment processes.” This presentation explores the relationship between corrosion control and other water quality treatment processes and introduces a novel chemical additive which addresses these issues holistically using significantly less phosphorus.

In the late 1990s the UK mandated the use of phosphoric acid to control lead release in drinking water. In 2016, the EPA [2] cited a study [3] which concluded that as much as 35% of the phosphorus load in drinking water plants comes from use of corrosion control additives in drinking water. In the UK, where runoff is tightly controlled and corrosion control doses of phosphorus are higher than the US, the amount of wastewater demand due to corrosion control is likely much higher than 35%.

In 2014, a study was conducted[4] to predict the impact raising corrosion control phosphorus to UK levels would have on the Chesapeake Bay watershed in the US. “The most common change to advanced treatment resulting from increased phosphorus loading was an increased addition of aluminum sulfate (88%), and the two most common changes to total solids disposal were an increase in the amount of total solids being disposed (83%) and an increase in the phosphorus concentration of the total solids being disposed (33%). The average annual cost increase resulting from phosphorus loading was $22,867/million gallons a day (MGD) for changes to advanced treatment and $17,164/MGD for changes to total solids disposal."

In 2020, the phosphorus discharge limits in the UK were reduced, which has resulted in major challenges for wastewater operators. In one study performed[5], the total costs of these changes were concluded to be “disproportionately expensive.” To combat these challenges, UK utilities are beginning to deploy alternative technologies for corrosion control and coagulation.

In the US, a study was performed to determine SeaQuest effectiveness at controlling lead release. The 90^th percentile lead results, in ug/l, from 2002 to 2021, were obtained from a random selection of 63 SeaQuest users across 16 states, from 0.1 MGD to 140 MGD of water production, including surface water, ground water and blended source water. Figure 1 shows the results prior to using SeaQuest and after using SeaQuest, and an overall average 90^th percentile reduction from 4.8 ug/l to 2.3 ug/l.

For integrated drinking and wastewater operators in the UK, utilizing SeaQuest to replace phosphoric acid for drinking water corrosion control is projected to reduce phosphorus load by 78%, reduce cost of chemicals by 63% and reduce total carbon footprint by 86% [7]. For drinking water operators in the US, SeaQuest has provided acceptable lead & copper compliance while significantly reducing dirty water complaints, increasing chlorine residuals, and reducing total cost of chemicals.