全球水业动态：全球首款生物管道污水处理系统将在亚洲和非洲投入使用

全球首款生物管道污水处理系统将在亚洲和非洲投入使用

Metito launches first bio wastewater treatment pipe to Asia and Africa

UAE-based Metito, a leader in total intelligent water management solutions in emerging markets, has joined hands with Biopipe, a new start-up company, to unveil the world’s first biological wastewater treatment pipe. Biopipe is owned by the Swiss company Biopipe Global and led by young Turkish entrepreneurs. Through this joint venture and licensing agreement, Metito will exclusively offer the revolutionary new system to communities across Asia and Africa, said a statement.

The patented green system is inspired by nature and uses a simple process totreat wastewater in an unpretentious manner, all inside a pipe. The wastewater then passes through a high quality filtration stage to complete the treatment after which the treated water can be used directly for organic farming, irrigation, underground aquifer injection or safe discharge into lakes, rivers or sea, or alternatively stored in a clean water tank for later usage, it said.

Additionally, unlike other traditional wastewater systems, Biopipe produces nosludge, no odour, no sound, and no waste, making it one of the most eco-friendly wastewater treatment processes in the world today.

The Biopipe system brings the benefits of wastewater treatment, recycling andreuse to a much wider audience with its ability to treat the wastewater generated by individual houses of two people to cities of millions - just as efficiently, said the statement.

Fady Juez, managing director, Metito, said: “Biopipe is an intelligent wastewater treatment solution that can be easily installed in a house as well as integrated into a plant to service an entire city. This really is revolutionary and I am confident that Metito will help globalise Biopipe. We have the experience, the capabilities and the right network in place to drive this through and to ensure that Biopipe becomes more suitable for a wider range of applications in a variety of emerging markets, both in Asia and Africa” .

威立雅投资35亿美元拓展其核工业污水处理业务

Veolia acquires Kurion for $350m to bolster services in the clean up of nuclear facilities

French company Veolia has acquired US firm Kurion for $350m to bolster its water/wastewater services in the clean up of nuclear facilities. In 2013, Veolia had set up Asteralis to branch out into the radioactive waste clean up segment, with special focus on cleaning up of waste from nuclear plants. Now with the latest acquisition, Veolia will be able to provide improved waste separation, vitrification and robotics services to nuclear facilities.

Previously, Veolia's subsidiaries Veolia Water Technologies, GRS Valtech and SARP Industries served the nuclear industry. Due to sluggish sales in the municipal segment, Veolia is focusing more on the industrial water/wastewater treatment market. From 2009 to 2011, the company had reported 35% jump in industrial wastewater treatment contracts.

Following the Kurion acquisition, the French firm intends to work in the treatment of waste that are of low and medium radioactive. In 2015, Veolia secured a three-year contract to deliver water and wastewater treatment services to a nuclear power facility in South Korea.

Kurion has operations in Washington, California, Idaho,Colorado and Texas states of the US as well as in the UK and Japan. Veolia chairman and CEO Antoine Frérot said: 'Bringing Kurion and its employees into Veolia is going to enable us to develop a world-class integrated offer innuclear facility clean up and treatment of low level radioactive waste around the world.

污水中的塑料微粒可能进入河流造成污染

Microplastic pieces from wastewater treatment plants getting into rivers, says study

Microplastic pieces could be escaping from filters of wastewater treatment plants and entering rivers to contaminate drinking water, research by the Loyola University Chicago has claimed.

These microplastics measure less than 5mm and have become a serious environmental concern, given the harmful effects they have on ocean life. While majority of the microplastics entering oceans comes from rivers, little research has been done into their impact of freshwater ecosystems.

Many rivers are drinking water sources for communities. Loyola University Chicago assistant professor Timothy Hoellein indicated that these small pieces of plastic can be consumed by fish in rivers, which then get into the human food chain. Hoellein said: 'Rivers have less water in them (than oceans), and we rely on that water much more intensely.'

Research by Hoellein and his team found that water downstream from wastewater treatment facilities carried higher levels of microplastics than water upstream from the facilities. Hoellein's team studied ten rivers in Illinois as part of the research titled 'Consider a source: Microplastic in rivers is abundant, mobile, and selects for unique bacterial assemblages'. This study supports earlier research findings carried out by Hoellein's team.

While initial findings show that treatment facilities are capturing 90% of the microplastics, the amount of microplastics released everyday through treated wastewater into rivers is still significant, with 15,000 microplastic particles from the 4.5 million at each of these treatment plants.

The research team found that one source of microplastics in 80% of the rivers studied was from wastewater treatment plants. Hoellein said: 'Wastewater treatment plants do a great job of doing what they are designed to do, which is treat waste for major pathogens and remove excess chemicals like carbon and nitrogen from the water that is released back into the river. But they weren't designed to filter out these tiny particles.' According to Hoellein, research on microplastics in rivers could help in gaining a better understanding of the complete life cycle of microplastics until they reach oceans.

美国环保局（EPA）发布水源地保护在线测绘工具

US EPA launches online mapping tool to protect drinking water sources

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released DWMAPS – the Drinking Water Mapping Application to Protect Source Waters. This robust online mapping tool provides the public, water system operators, state programs, and federal agencies with critical information to help them safeguard the sources of America’s drinking water.

DWMAPS allows users to learn about their watershed and understand more about their water supplier. DWMAPS also lets users see if sources of their drinking water are polluted and if there are possible sources of pollution that could affect their communities’ water supply. DWMAPS can even guide users to ways they can get involved in protecting drinking water sources in their community.

Utilities and state drinking water program managers can also use DWMAPS with their own state and local data. It allows them to identify potential sources of contamination in their locations, find data to support source water assessments and plans to manage potential sources of contamination and evaluate accidental spills and releases. DWMAPS also integrates drinking water protection activities with other environmental programs at the federal, state, and local levels.

The mapping system will not display the locations of Public Water System facility intakes, but it does contain a wide variety of data useful to the protection of drinking water sources. EPA developed DWMAPS in consultation with EPA regional drinking water programs, state drinking water regulators, and public water systems.

核电厂放射性物质泄漏污染纽约地下水

Radioactive material leaks into groundwater near New York City

Radioactive material has leaked into the groundwater below the Indian Point nuclear power plant near New York City, prompting New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to call for a federal investigation into the incident.

Entergy, which operates the nuclear facility, had reported that three monitoring wells had shown presence of radioactive materials at alarming levels, with the level in one well indicating an increase from 12,300 picocuries per litre to more than 8,000,000 picocuries per litre. According to the EPA, the maximum level of tritium contamination level should not exceed 20,000 picocuries per litre.

Entergy has stated that only groundwater has been affected and not the drinking water, reported The Guardian. The facility also indicated that the contamination would not pose a threat to public health as it did not migrate beyond the site. Nevertheless, this has drawn a lot of criticism from many, including the governor.

Though tritium cannot penetrate the skin, it can cause cancer. The governor had called upon the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Health to probe the incident. 'Our first concern is for the health and safety of the residents close to the facility and ensuring the groundwater leak does not pose a threat,' Cuomo said.

The plant has two nuclear reactors and supplies 30% of the power to the New York City, which is about 35 miles from New York City with 40 monitoring wells. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesperson Neil Sheehan indicated that the leak of radioactive materials into the wells occurred after a drain overflowed during a regular maintenance exercise.