As a follow-up to the post regarding ozone for taste and odor control in Waco, we can add another success story for ozone in the same application. This time it is Charleston, IL. We have seen a number of towns with ozone water treatment win taste tests contests when the water system previously had problems with taste.
Bad tasting and smelling water were so problematic five years ago for Charleston that they decided to use ozone in the middle of its water treatment process, a first in Illinois. Charleston treats surface water, so it must contend with algae and other water taste challenges not faced by suppliers that use underground water sources.
Five years later, the Charleston Water Treatment Plant has won first place in a water tasting contest held by the regional 15-county Water Supply Operators Association. The plant is now scheduled to represent the region in the Illinois Section of American Water Works Association Conference tasting contest on March 16 in Springfield.
The water samples were judged on taste, odor and clarity. Charleston’s success in the contest can be attributed, in part, to the plant being new and having equipment for treating water with ozone. The plant on east McKinley Avenue converts liquid oxygen into gas and then runs the gas through an ozone generator to turn it into ozone. The ozone, an unstable form of oxygen, is injected into the water to destroy biological compounds that cause bad taste and odor.