Group Gives Aqua New Jersey Business Award
The Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin presented Aqua New Jersey Inc. the Business & Industry award at its 26th annual Recognition Dinner.
Aqua received the award for the installation of advanced ultraviolet (UV) water treatment in New Jersey.
The facility, located in Lopatcong Township, provides UV light treatment to enhance water quality for approximately 10,600 customers in Phillipsburg and Lopatcong, Pohatcong, and Greenwich townships. Aqua was the first utility to use UV in this particular type of application and on this scale.
Aqua New Jersey President William Davis accepted the award on behalf of the company. "We are extremely proud to have been selected this prestigious award from such an important organization in our industry and our region," said Davis.
If the company had built a traditional filtration plant, the cost could have been as much as $12 million. Davis said the company was able to develop the more affordable solution because the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection accepted the proposed solution. The UV treatment facility has a capacity of 10.5 million gallons per day. Inside the plant, untreated water is disinfected with chlorine and then flows through a chamber where UV lights "saturate" the water. This "one-two punch" provides two distinct disinfection mechanisms, effectively eliminating micro-organisms from wells along the Delaware River.
Aqua provides water and wastewater services to 150,000 residents across eight counties in New Jersey. It is a subsidiary of Aqua America, Inc., a large U.S.-based publicly-traded water company, serving approximately 3 million residents in 13 states.