Side Stream Saturation comes to Orleans
By: Eric Spengler, VP Orleans Pond Coalition
The Orleans Pond Coalition announced this past week that it has successfully installed new equipment into Sarah’s Pond as part of its Oxygenation Demonstration Project. ‘The new equipment we are exploring is based on technology called side stream saturation (SSS). We’re excited about its potential,’ said past president Judith Bruce. ‘It’s so different from our earlier work. We’re now calling this phase II of our Oxygenation Project.’
OPC’s Oxygenation Project is focused on demonstrating we can eliminate the hypoxic (extremely low oxygen) conditions at the bottom of a lake or pond. Hypoxic conditions can trigger the release of reduced metals and nutrients such as phosphorus from sediments resulting in algae blooms. Today a chemical called Alum is most often selected as the lead option to prevent release of nutrients from sediment.
During the past two years, the primary focus of the Sarah’s Pond Oxygenation Demonstration Project was assessing the performance of nanobubble equipment. However, despite the equipment being designed to deliver excess oxygen to the test basin, the oxygen levels in the test failed to substantially increase, nor did it substantially decrease harmful algal blooms.
During this same period, new developments with side stream saturation have made them more affordable, making them an attractive approach for kettle ponds such as Sarah’s. OPC has contracted SOLitude Lake Management to install and monitor the new equipment over the next three years. Our goal remains unchanged – demonstrate sufficient oxygen in the test basin can substantially reduce or eliminate harmful algal blooms.
How does side stream saturation work:
SOLitude Lake Management has partnered with Vertex Aquatic Solutions and Gantzer Water for this research. The new patented Oxygen Saturation Technology (OST) system is equipped with a water pump specified for freshwater, an oxygen supply, an oxygen contact chamber, and plumbing to pull water from the target basin and return it oxygen enriched to the same basin at the same depth. The installed unit will pump approximately 60 gallons per minute and consume no more than 1.5kwh power
SSS Schematic for Oxygenation of Target Area:
The proprietary system guarantees 100% oxygen transfer efficiency (OTE), dispersing the higher oxygenated water throughout the bottom density layer. ‘There are no bubbles made and no mixing to disturb bottom sediments or compromise thermal structure’ says inventor Dr. Paul Gantzer. ‘This system dissolves the full oxygen concentration in water so we can deliver far greater amounts of oxygen at the sediment water interface than traditional aeration systems. It just might become a new standard for shallow lakes.’ During installation, test measurements on site show the equipment is delivering more oxygen than required as calculated by OPC’s environmental consultant Dr. Ken Wagner.’ This is good news; it allows for further fine tuning of equipment. For example, it could be possible to run the pump several hours per day, making the operational costs that much lower.
While this is a multi-year project, the first stage of phase II, validation of equipment has been successfully completed. Exciting! Stay tuned for more updates as the year progresses.
Photos by Ed Hafner