Atlantium - Regulatory Compliance

Atlantium’s Hydro-Optic Disinfection™ R-200 model – both single and dual lamp versions - has been validated according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) strict protocols. The validation, carried out by authorized third parties, assures users that the system effectively inactivates target pathogens at EPA-specified levels. The validation also verifies the monitoring and reporting tools are in compliance with EPA regulations. Another procedure was conducted for the R-200 to test its effectiveness against Adenovirus; third parties validated that the system inactivates the virus at the specified 4-log reduction level.

Atlantium’s system is highly effective against a range of microbial threats, environmentally-friendly, produces no disinfection by-products, and meets treatment, maintenance and reliability goals set by the EPA.

Creating standards for UV water disinfection
The quality of drinking water is regulated by the U.S. EPA both to protect people from infection and illness that can be communicated via water-borne pathogenic microorganisms and to minimize their exposure to carcinogens from disinfection by-products in the water.

For decades, municipal and private water suppliers have been disinfecting water with chlorine and other chemicals. During the past decade, however, awareness of the dangers posed by chemicals and their disinfection by-products has spurred regulations and a focus on environmentally-friendly disinfection methods. Just when regulators were looking to reduce levels of chemicals in water, the 1993 Milwaukee Cryptosporidium Outbreak occurred. Due to a malfunction in one of the city of Milwaukee’s water treatment plants, more than 400,000 people contracted gastrointestinal illnesses and over 100 people died. It was subsequently proven that Cryptosporidium is easily inactivated by even low UV doses, yet it is highly resistant to chlorine.

In December 2005, the EPA announced new rules whose purpose was to balance two disinfection goals: decrease the incidence of gastrointestinal illnesses caused by microbial contaminants and to reduce potential cancer risks associated with disinfection by-products resulting from chemical disinfection of drinking water. This translated into rules that required reduction of disinfection by-products and monitoring and if necessary, treatment for two disease agents, Cryptosporidium and Giardia. To standardize UV unit performance and assure that the technology would work consistently in a drinking water context, the EPA developed a disinfection guidance manual and clear performance, monitoring, reporting and validation rules.

Atlantium system’s validated reliable performance under all conditions
The EPA protocols require that a UV reactor demonstrate microbial inactivation at specified log reduction levels and that the reactor has the monitoring capabilities to maintain the UV dose when conditions of flow rate, UV transmissivity (UVT) and lamp intensity change. Moreover, to obtain a dose pacing validation, the UV system’s controller must be able to calculate the dose it will provide under a variety of water flow rate, UVT and lamp intensity conditions - and actually deliver it. Based on the system’s reliability in producing the calculated dose, the validation factor is determined.

The validation factor is a UV system-specific number, by which the EPA UV dose must be multiplied to get the dose required under various specified sets of conditions (i.e., lamp power, water flow rate, UVT). A lower number indicates a more accurate and less expensive system to operate because it requires less of a safety factor to assure the regulatory authorities it will stay in compliance. (For example, to deliver a dose of 14 to inactivate Cryptosporidium, some UV reactors must deliver a dose of 70 because their reactor has a high validation factor.) Atlantium’s validation factors are low.

Dose Pacing Validation
Atlantium’s Hydro-Optic Disinfection system’s R-200 model was validated for dose pacing operation. That is, the algorithm that controls the reactor and calculates and delivers the dose was validated. This is in contrast to a “setpoint” validation that simply focuses on maintaining the dose above a specific lowest-allowable setpoint (for example, 40mJ) for a specific triplet set of conditions including lamp power, UVT and water flow.

Monitoring and Reporting
In order to comply with EPA UV regulations, each month water suppliers must show that at least 95% of the water delivered to their customers has been treated properly within the validated operating conditions of their UV system. This demands that they have monitoring and reporting that log operations and record any off-spec conditions. Atlantium automates all these functions. Its user-friendly monitoring is a crucial component; the continuous, real-time data on water and lamp conditions are the basis of calculations made to ensure the system maintains and delivers the required dose. Reporting features enable operators to easily produce compliance reports at the touch of a button instead of sifting through pages of logs for information.

The control system saves users operating costs by minimizing regulation-required redundancies and automating compliance reporting.