Problems in the Pipes

by William Furry

The State Of Illinois is up to its neck in hot water, and that's good news for taxpayers and state institutions.

Since 1949 the Illinois State Water Survey has quietly saved the state millions of dollars through its Institutional Water Treatment Program (IWTP). While better-known programs capture headlines, the IWTP has worked vigilantly and efficiently behind the scenes to prevent boiler system breakdowns at state facilities and to ensure that hot water for heating, cooking, showering, and cleaning continues to flow unrestricted through Illinois' indoor waterways. One of the most cost-effective programs in state government, the IWTP offers a model water treatment program for the nation and the world.

The Champaign-based program provides state institutions -prisons, mental health centers, universities, and other public-owned facilities- with reliable and consistent advice on effective water treatments for potable (drinking) and industrial water systems. The IWTP maintains detailed water-treatment records for more than 90 state facilities, trains system operators in new technologies, tests and monitors field equipment and water supplies, and inventories and supervises the ordering of water-treatment chemicals for institutions throughout the state.

But it wasn't always that way.

ALL PLUGGED UP AND NOWHERE TO FLOW
In the later 1940s, the state had a serious hotwater problem. Institutional boilers from Chicago to Cairo were scaling up and breaking down almost as fast as they could be repaired. Something was wrong with the state's water-treatment plan, but nobody knew how to fix it.

In 1949 the state turned to the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) for advice on ways to control corrosion and erosion in institutional hot-water systems. Prior to that time, water treatment at most Illinois institutions was contracted to and managed by private companies.

"Water treatment companies were not as helpful in those days as they are today," says Russell Lane, director of the ISWS's Institutional Water Treatment Program from 1949 to 1981. Fewer qualified people worked in the field back then, he says, and company representatives were "more interested in making a quick sale than in teaching system operators how to use water treatment chemicals properly."

The problem was worse in those parts of the state where groundwater is the principal source of supply. Because groundwater contains a higher percentage of dissolved solids than does surface water, it requires more aggressive water treatment to control corrosion and scale formation.

During the early 1950s, the Illinois Veteran's Home in Manteno, Illinois, was having scaling problems with its main boiler. The private water-treatment company hired to manage the system had instructed plant operators to dump 100 pounds of a caustic chemical into the boiler every day to help control corrosion, yet the scaling only worsened. The problem became so acute that boiler feedwater pipes had to be redrilled every three months.

"They were using 100 pounds of chemical where just 10 or 20 pounds would have been sufficient," says Lane, who later helped the institution find the solution to its problem. In reality, all the Manteno facility needed was a water softener.

"In those days water treatment was more of an art than it is today," says Lane, who has written a book on the subject: Control of Scaling and Corrosion in Building Water Systems (1993, McGraw-Hill). Back then, chemists had to determine the cause of corrosion in water lines and then look for ways to remove it. The process was time consuming and costly.

Today, however, controlling corrosion is more a matter of knowing which water treatment is best for what type of water source, says Lane. "You know what course of treatment to use based on your past experience." At eighty four, Lane continues to work as a water-treatment consultant. He and Survey colleague Chester Neff are co-inventors of a half-dozen steam purlfication monitors that are still in use in heating plants around the world. Lane recalls the days when his job required that he climb into boilers to collect and analyze scale samples. "I don't have to do that anymore," he laughs.

At the outset, 35 state facilities signed on with the Institutional Water Treatment Program. At one time the program provided service to as many as 150 facilities. "Other states came to Illinois to see if they could set up similar water treatment programs," recalls Lane. There was even some interest from Canada.

Today the the Institutional Water Treatment Program serves 90 institutions around the state, from the restored Old State Capitol in Springfield to the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago to the Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Although the IWTP is strictly advisory, virtually every major state institution participates. Few can afford not to.

COLD SHOWERS IN THE TOWERS
In the later 1970s, Illinois State University in Normal had a water-treatment crisis. Watterson Towers, the university's 28 story, 2,200-student twin dormitory complex, received a rash of complaints from students who lived on the upper five floors. There was no hot water pressure, the students complained. They could neither take showers nor wash their clothes.

The problem was extensive. Domestic hot water pipes were scaling up with calcium carbonate. The proposed solution was expensive. Cost estimates to replace the clogged pipes exceeded $1 million, and required that the dormitories be emptied of students for an extended period. The school could afford neither to pay the repair bill nor to vacate the towers.

The university consulted with the IWTP, which determined that the primary problem was the Normal municipal water system itself, which at that time contained a higher-than-usual concentration of calcium carbonate. Unfortunately, due to increased demand, the city's water softeners and recarbonization equipment were unable to stabilize the city water supply during peak-use periods.

Another contributing factor was that the dormitory staff, in order to compensate for low-water pressure on upper floors, raised the temperature in its hot water tanks by 20šC. As water temperature rises, however, the scaling process accelerates and more minerals are deposited.

The IWTP considered and rejected several solutions to resolve the problem: replacing the hot-water pipes, installing water softeners, and chemically cleaning the pipes. None of the options were acceptable, as each would require vacating the dormitories.

"We decided to dissolve the scale by injecting carbon dioxide (CO2) into the system," recalls Chester Neff, a Survey chemist who replaced Lane as IWTP director when the latter retired.

Compared to the alternatives, CO2 treatment was relatively inexpensive (approximately$.10 per 1,000 gallons of treated water, or about $2,000 total) and the benefits were immediate. Best of all, the treatment could take place without displacing any students. CO2 tanks were installed in the basement of Watterson Towers. "Whenever hot water was used, CO2 was injected into the system," Neff says. "Within a few months the CO2 treatment had dissolved most of the calcium carbonate buildup, and hot water was restored to the upper floors. To this day, no additional treatment measures have been required, Neff says. "They didn't have to replace a single pipe."

Based on the success of the CO2 water treatment at Watterson Towers, the IWTP purchasedseven additional CO2 systems for use on other campuses that were experiencing similar water-circulation problems.

SAVING THE STATE MONEY
Until the early 1980s, the Illinois Water Treatment Program was funded entirely by the state. At that time, according to current IWTP Director Kent Smothers, the program went to a user-supported system. "The state faced the task of reducing expenditures and reasoned that, if the service were of value, those agencies participating wouldn't mind supporting some of the costs involved," he says.

"Institutions now pay, on average, about $2,500 a year to be part of the program," Smothers continues. "The user fee, which covers 60% of the IWTP's expenses helps pay for salaries, outfits our field labs, and buys our instruments and supplies," hesays. In exchange, participating institutions receive technical training, field support, bimonthly site inspections, and assistance in inventorying and ordering water-treatment chemicals.

"One of the most encouraging responses to the user-fee system was that 100% of former participants stuck with the program," says Smothers. "About the only time anyone drops out is when the state closes a facility down."

"It's a pretty stable program," Smothers continues. "The Survey tends to think in the long-term, whereas someone coming in to sell chemicals is more concerned with the immediate impact. At the Survey we're looking 20-30 years down the road and seeking ways to extend the service life of the equipment."

"The Institutional Water Treatment Program is one of the most cost-effective state programs in Illinois," says Smothers. "Just the chemical bidding process alone probably saves enough money to pay for the program -even if we didn't do anything else."

Every year the IWTP recommends a chemical list for each of its participating institutions and writes specifications for their use. Each facility is different and has its own water-treatment needs. Institutions submit their orders to Central Management (CMS), which puts the total chemical list out for open bid. Before the Survey became involved in the process, individual institutions would order their chemicals piecemeal, and often pay higher prices for proprietary chemical products. The state buys generic and in much larger volume. Smothers: "Instead of an individual institution buying 500 pounds of a certain chemical, we might get a price for 10,000 pounds at a much better price (per unit)."

TROUBLESHOOTING THE FUTURE
To get to the heating plant at the Logan Medium Security Correction Facility in Lincoln, Illinois, you have to first drive around the imposing prison compound, past the 60-foot guard towers and the walls of reinforced steel fencing with their loops of razor-sharp concertina wire spiralling along the footpaths.

The power plant serves both the Logan Correctional Facility and the Lincoln Correctional Facility, which lies just across the hard road. The plant is not small; it contains three massive coalfired boilers, two water towers, and a state-of-the-art reverse osmosis (RO) water filtration system. The RO system -one of only two of its kind in the Institutional Water Treatment Program - is a specialized unit that forces pressurized water through a series of spiral-wound, hollow-fiber filters. An RO system can effectively remove 99% of the dissolved solids that typically pass through a conventional water-treatment system and, because it uses no chemicals, is a lot more environmentally friendly. Several state institutions are currently considering conversion to a reverse osmosis water-treatment system.

Inside the plant laboratory, Survey chemist Charles Curtiss fills a five-milliliter beaker with tap water, then pours off a portion into a test tube. He reaches for a vial and, with an eye dropper, plops several drops into the tube. He stirs the contents and watches the water turn pale blue, then turns and records the test results in his log.

Curtiss is a troubleshooter, one of the IWTP's frontline defenders. Five times a year he visits 35 treatment facilities in the state, traveling as far north as Rockford and as far south as Anna. When necessary, his car doubles as a field laboratory.

"Sometimes they'll call and say, 'We opened up a boiler and there's some scale in it. Can you come and see?' I drive over, analyze it, and then determine what compound it is. Then I devise the best way to clean it up and prevent its reoccurrence."

"At the Water Survey we try to blend reality with the theoretical," Curtiss continues. "Theoretically, we know how a water treatment system should operate, but in reality there are going to be situations that arise that are just not in the textbooks."

"Time and experience," says Russell Lane, "will eventually solve even those situations."