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Middle Eastern MBR subsidiary bought out by UK operator
industrial news Middle Eastern MBR subsidiary bought out by UK operator ACWa Services Ltd, a water and effluent treatment contractor, has acquired Aquator Bahrain WLL from the administrators of Aquator Group Ltd. Aquator Bahrain supplies the Kubota range of filtration membranes throughout the Middle East. Kubota is one of the leading suppliers of submerged membrane systems used in bioreactors for the treatment of both industrial effluent and domestic sewage. According to Peter Ripley, ACWa Services' managing director, this acquisition is part of the company's plan to extend its interest in the Middle East. The rapidly growing use of treated effluent for irrigation purposes in the Middle East is creating the demand for membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology. ACWa Services will sell MBR technology throughout the Middle East from the Bahrain office and its affiliate, Aquator Emirates in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Contact: ACWa Services Ltd, ACWa House, Keighly Road, Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 2UE, UK. Tel: +44 1756 794794; Fax: +44 1756 790898; Website: www.acwa.co.uk
Wastewater pollution rules draw criticism from public groups In the USA, Great Lakes citizens’ organizations are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to drop a proposed sewage policy, citing concerns about allowing further discharges of viruses and other pathogenic pollution into the lakes along the boundary of the USA and Canada. If finalized, the federal policy, proposed in late 2003, would permit sewage treatment plants to divert sewage around secondary treatment operations anytime it rains, allowing largely untreated sewage to ‘blend’ with fully treated wastewater before being discharged to waterways. The agency believes the policy will help prevent the overflow of raw sewage into homes and waterways during heavy rain storms, or when snow melts. Currently, treatment plants are allowed to divert sewage through blending, but only under very limited circumstances, such as for essential maintenance or to prevent loss of life and personal injury. “It will let sewage treatment plants off the hook from having to do long-term water quality improvements,” said Cameron Davis, Director of the Lake Michigan Federation, based in Chicago. Davis and nearly two dozen other Great Lakes groups believe the policy will allow more discharges of parasites, bacteria, viruses and other pollution into a lake system that supplies more than 90% of the country’s fresh surface water. It also will provide an escape clause for treatment plants to avoid more permanent solutions, they claim. Contact: US Environmental Protection Agency, Ariel Rios Building, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20460, USA. Tel: +1 202 272 0167; Website: www.epa.gov
Filtration+Separation
April 2004 7
Wastewater pollution rules draw criticism from public groups In the USA, Great Lakes citizens’ organizations are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to drop a proposed sewage policy, citing concerns about allowing further discharges of viruses and other pathogenic pollution into the lakes along the boundary of the USA and Canada. If finalized, the federal policy, proposed in late 2003, would permit sewage treatment plants to divert sewage around secondary treatment operations anytime it rains, allowing largely untreated sewage to ‘blend’ with fully treated wastewater before being discharged to waterways. The agency believes the policy will help prevent the overflow of raw sewage into homes and waterways during heavy rain storms, or when snow melts. Currently, treatment plants are allowed to divert sewage through blending, but only under very limited circumstances, such as for essential maintenance or to prevent loss of life and personal injury. “It will let sewage treatment plants off the hook from having to do long-term water quality improvements,” said Cameron Davis, Director of the Lake Michigan Federation, based in Chicago. Davis and nearly two dozen other Great Lakes groups believe the policy will allow more discharges of parasites, bacteria, viruses and other pollution into a lake system that supplies more than 90% of the country’s fresh surface water. It also will provide an escape clause for treatment plants to avoid more permanent solutions, they claim. Contact: US Environmental Protection Agency, Ariel Rios Building, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20460, USA. Tel: +1 202 272 0167; Website: www.epa.gov
Filtration+Separation
April 2004 7