Challenge

Piney Point is the site of an inactive fertilizer facility, which following a bankruptcy filing by the parent company in 2001, was taken over by the State of Florida to oversee closure.  Heavy rainfall and tropical storms in 2001 demanded immediate response to a potential breach of the site's pond dikes and hundreds of millions of gallons of acidic wastewater.  The threat of releasing these wastewaters into Tampa Bay prompted the need for remedial service.

Solution

In May 2002, Siemens Water Technologies, formerly USFilter, signed a two-year service contract to support the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's remediation initiative for the Piney Point Fertilizer plant. 

Siemens provided a number of solution options for removing the wastewater off-site by truck hauling, barging and use of the existing lime treatment and aeration systems.  The customer chose the on-site solution provided, which used mobile water treatment.  The wastewater being treated contained high TDS and low pH, which posed significant scaling potential.  

We provided a solution that utilized high-rate clarification followed by filtration, reverse osmosis and demineralization.  Siemens treated up to 1 mgd of brackish, acid pond water.  The contract was performance based, with guarantees on discharge water quality following the treatment process.

Result

Siemens Water Technologies provided a rapid response, on-site treatment solution.  This unique treatment solution featured a patented clarification process which had not previously been used as the treatment standard for this type of wastewater.  We were able to help this customer reduce the volume of wastewater at the site and ultimately, assisted in successfully bringing the facility to closure.