EnviroMix Operational Excellence Award Presented to Ventura Plant

Vince Ines (left), wastewater utility manager for Ventura Water, receives the award from EnviroMix representative Jeremy Neill (Coombs-Hopkins). 

EnviroMix, a mixing and process solutions provider for the water and wastewater industry, recently awarded their Operational Excellence Award to the water reclamation facility (WRF) in Ventura, California.

Located 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles, the Ventura WRF began working with HDR Engineering in 2017 to update the aeration blower system and review alternative mixing technologies for the anoxic zones of the BNR basins. The existing technology — ten submersible mixers with a combined 60 HP — had been found to be ineffective. The plant consistently experienced issues with sludge settling in corners of the tanks and going septic. These issues created process upsets and labor-intensive maintenance demands to clean out the tanks.

Based on Ventura’s priorities of energy efficiency, low maintenance, and a completely mixed environment, EnviroMix’s BioMix Compressed Gas Mixing was selected to mix the two anoxic zones, delivering:

• More than $60,000 annual O&M savings versus conventional submersible mixing technology.
• Minimal, localized maintenance.
• Proven negligible oxygen transfer.
• Optimal anoxic conditions for denitrification.
• Operator adjustable mixing intensity to ensure uniform mixing under all conditions.

When they first received an introduction to BioMix, the Ventura operators were skeptical about the technology’s ability to fully mix the tank without delivering oxygen to the process. The low-maintenance system sounded too good to be true. However, as plant supervisor John Willis stated, “Once it was installed and online, we just went, ‘Wow, this stuff works!’”

With BioMix in the anoxic zones, the operators saw that the tanks were completely mixed. Regarding maintenance and operations, the BioMix system has been much less labor intensive than the mechanical mixers were. In the past, Willis’s staff would have to adjust the mixers to certain levels and angles in the tank on a regular basis and check the tank corners for septic sludge. As for the BioMix system, Willis commented, “So far, there’s literally been no maintenance.”

EnviroMix is pleased to partner with the outstanding team at the Ventura facility, providing high efficiency, uniform mixing with minimized maintenance and negligible oxygen transfer.