MWD KICKS OFF OZONE SYSTEM DISINFECTANT TO KILL WATER'S BAD TASTE.Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is the largest bulk water supplier for municipal use in the world. The name is usually shortened to the "Metropolitan Water District" or simply "MWD". officially flips the switch today on a new disinfection disinfection, n the process of destroying pathogenic organisms or rendering them inert. disinfection, full oral cavity, n a procedure used to reduce active periodontal disease, usually completed within a certain short time frame. system designed to produce water that tastes and smells fresher. The system uses ozone, a form of oxygen, that kills pathogens faster and more effectively than traditional chlorine. More importantly, the system is designed to cut by half the amount of cancer-causing byproducts created by chlorine. ``Aesthetics will improve,'' said Jim Kostelecky, manager of the Joseph P. Jensen Water Treatment Plant, which supplies customers in Ventura County, Calabasas and San Fernando San Fernando, city, Argentina San Fernando (săn fərnăn`dō), city (1991 pop. 144,761), Buenos Aires prov., E Argentina. It is a district administrative center in the Greater Buenos Aires area. . With the upgrade, Jensen will treat 750 million gallons of water a day, making it the nation's largest drinking-water plant to use ozone as a disinfectant. MWD MWD Metropolitan Water District of Southern California MWD Measurement While Drilling (oil drilling) MWD Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (stock symbol) MWD Molecular Weight Distribution MWD Military Working Dog also switched its Mills plant in Riverside to ozone; the projects cost a total of $234 million. Los Angeles residents have received ozone-treated water since 1986, when the Department of Water and Power opened its filtration plant in Sylmar. But an ozone system is very expensive to install and operate, so MWD postponed the new system until required to meet water-quality rules designed to cut disinfection byproducts. The byproducts are formed when water with algae algae (ăl`jē) [plural of Lat. alga=seaweed], a large and diverse group of primarily aquatic plantlike organisms. These organisms were previously classified as a primitive subkingdom of the plant kingdom, the thallophytes (plants that , peat moss peat moss: see sphagnum. peat moss or sphagnum moss Any of more than 160 species of plants that make up the bryophyte genus Sphagnum, which grow in dense clumps around ponds, in swamps and bogs, on moist, acid cliffs, and on and other organic material is treated with chlorine. The chemicals have been linked to cancer, and in the 1990s federal officials ordered water purveyors to cut the amount of byproducts allowed in drinking water drinking water supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. . The Jensen plant receives water from Northern California that is high in organic material. ``This will be a huge improvement for anyone that gets Jensen water,'' said Kurt Souza, regional engineer for the California Department of Health Service's Southern California section. At Jensen, water from the State Water Project is piped from Castaic Lake to the plant, which is between Balboa Boulevard and the Golden State Freeway The Golden State Freeway is a north-south freeway running through Kern County and Los Angeles County, California. Originally built as U.S. Highway 99, it was re-signed as Interstate 5 in 1964. . The process begins with pure oxygen that is zapped with electricity to form ozone. It's an energy-intensive process and plant managers estimate their electricity usage will double with the new system. The ozone gas is piped to long cement chambers and bubbled through untreated water to quickly disintegrate pathogens. Ozone disinfection takes just 10 minutes, compared with two hours with chlorine. From there, the water is settled to remove sediment, then filtered and finally infused with another disinfectants called chloramines that will keep the water bacteria-free as it travels to customers as far away as Oxnard. MWD officials expect ozone will help alleviate the musty taste and smell many customers have noticed during warmer months when algae blooms in Lake Castaic. ``If there's an algae bloom going on in your source water, your average customer can tell you it tastes awful with chlorine. With ozone, in all likelihood, they won't even know it's going on,'' said Kostelecky. Kerry Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3746 kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Jim Kostelecky, manager of the Joseph P. Jensen Treatment Plant, discusses the new ozone treatment system that will disinfect To remove the virus code that has attached itself to a legitimate file. Sometimes, the antivirus program cannot untangle the code, and the infected file has to be deleted. See quarantine. water. Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer |
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