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12/13/2007
Is experimental technology to blame?
Officials continue to blame the Appleton Water Plant fiasco on “experimental technology” - the fact that Appleton forged ahead (being progressive, taking the lead – Appleton’s typical modus operandi.…) using special ultra-fine membranes to meet new and improved water reg’s. The regulations mandate what I call “crypto” requirements – the ability to filter water to a much higher standard than ever before necessary.
To achieve this higher standard of filtration, four potential membrane filter providers were researched, interviewed, and their products piloted. After pilot testing, the four membrane makers were ranked on 18 subcriteria, determined by a Design Team, made up of five water plant employees and five contract engineers.
For each criterion, each potential membrane vendor was give a plus or a minus - nothing in between. Here is the Comparison Summary (with a caveat – my copy of the report isn’t 100% clear, so some +’s and –‘s aren’t as clear as they could be):
Vendor #1: 17 pluses
Vendor #2 (Koch): 16 pluses
Vendor #3: 6 pluses
Vendor #4: 8 pluses
Three of the 18 rating categories were in the area of “Experience” – experience with 1) Industrial applications, 2) Drinking Water and 3) “Proposed Equipment.”
Vendor #1 fell short in only one area - “Resistance to Softening pH.” Vendor #2, Koch, garnered two minus scores, both in the area of Experience. All three other membrane suppliers had the maximum three “plus” ratings for each of the three “Experience” subcategories.
Despite all this, the “Design Team” spec’d only the Koch membrane to satisfy the new plant’s microfiltration requirements. Membranes themselves weren’t, at the time, “Experimental Technology.” It was Koch that was inexperienced in membranes.
From the beginning, experienced membrane suppliers questioned, using specific evidence, whether the amount of Koch membrane filtration called for would produce the specified 24 million gallons per day (MGD).
An industry source (via a 1999 internal memo) opined that “Koch has over 7,000 ultrafiltration and microfiltration membrane systems in operation around the world but only four (4) where people drink the water.” Of those four, two filtered water from a pristine mountain stream producing together, less than 2.5 MGD. The remaining two plants filtered groundwater to remove iron.
So if all those 7,000 Koch membranes were installed around the world, what were they doing?
Well, if you go to the Koch web site, you see filtering in food technology applications (e.g., milk proteins, fat micelles, synthetic dyes), treating wastewater in manufacturing applications (e.g., specialty chemicals, cosmetics, textiles and leather goods), and work in pharmaceuticals and paper coating, to name just a very few of the specialties Koch has found solutions for.
But in 1999, very limited drinking water experience.
Let this be a lesson onto us. You don’t want your Lasix eye surgery to be number 1 , or even number 5. And you surely want to know that in his or her medical and residency training, your doctor did as much “piloting” as was humanly possible.
Hindsight indeed, is precious.
We apparently can't handle the truth
The Perfect Storm at the water plant
A dance around accountability
Mistakes are made to be admitted, corrected and learned from (11/15/2007)
Outrage at this water plant business (11/6/2007)
A coincidence of headlines? (10/29/2007)
Is Tim Hanna vulnerable? (8/10/2007)
The City doesn't have a clue - unbelievable
Appleton makes a deal with the devil (6/18/2007)
$2M wasted in Appleton (5/17/2007)
Water plant debacle continues – another contract expanded last night - $1/2 million since July. (9/21/2006)
Will Mayor Hanna ever say “I’m sorry"? (8/30/2006)
COMMENTS
I know that in my business when someone comes to me and says they have the latest and greatest in technology available for me to try I run as fast as I can in the opposite direction. I cannot tell you how much in my early years how I wanted to have the latest and greatest (cutting edge)(now dubbed "the bleeding edge" and I know why) technology. I soon came to realize that me getting it first meant that I was the guinea pig. Phone calls and huge wasted down time only to find out that I was the trial and error guy for the company that sold me the technology. The people who bought it later, and the company that sold it to me benefited tremendously from the efforts of the "bleeding edgers". This is where we are at today with the water treatment plant. The bleeding edge. We are doing the bleeding. Has anyone thought about gutting the plant of the current failing technology and spending the new money on something that will work? The land is purchased. the infrastructure is in place,and the building is in place. Line up the dumpsters and take it to the landfill.
Mike (Thu Dec 13 09:00:07 2007)
I wonder what was said that cooled the budding of a seperate investigation regarding the water treatment problem. I can only imagine the pressure being put on Mayor Hanna by some companies. His saying nothing at the recent Utitlities meeting speaks volumes.
Still haven't read anything that explains why the $5 million would be at risk for seeking the truth, unless it's already known by B&M what went wrong.
James (Thu Dec 13 12:22:59 2007)
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