Real Science . Not Science Fiction . EPA™ Information
Our competitor continually quotes this manual as if it were written for the backyard pond environment. In reality it was written for drinking water treatment and is only a draft (The last actual manual is over 16 years old).
Now here are a few facts about this manual:
This manual is a guide for drinking water sterilization.
Only a very small portion of (11 pages of 478) this manual deals with unfiltered, ground water systems.
Why should this concern you? The manual doesn’t address issues that actually concern a backyard pond or aquarium environment. In ALL of its calculations it fails to take into consideration factors such as: Fish Load, Feeding, Pond Size, Photosynthesis, Fish Waste, Plant Coverage, Inadequate Filtration (of course not our Ultima II Filter), and most of all the time involved to maintain your water feature.
At Aqua Ultraviolet, to confirm what we already knew, we sent this email to the EPA™ :
AUV Q: “….. My question is, is this manual for a pond environment, drinking water or just information about UV in general? Can it be used for this or do you have a specific manual that pertains more closely to a backyard pond environment?”
The following information was obtained from Daniel C. Schmelling, Ph.D., of the EPA ™:
EPA™ A: “To cite the first sentence from the cover letter in the DRAFT UV Disinfection Guidance Manual you reference: "The purpose of this guidance manual, when finalized, is solely to provide technical information on the application of ultraviolet light for the disinfection of drinking water by public water systems." Re your question – this manual was not written to address the cleaning of backyard ponds. I am not aware of any EPA ™ guidance that addresses pond maintenance. However, you might contact the OW [] resource Center as shown below regarding this matter.”
As for our competitors UV comparison:
The “Green Water” sizing information is fictional, there is no such thing as “Green Water Flowrate” in the EPA ™ Manual. Our competitor’s formula is based on some imaginary variables that they created.
According to the EPA ™: (Section 4.1 page 4-1):
Validation operating conditions must include, at a minimum, the following:
UV intensity (as measured by a UV intensity sensor)
Flowrate
Lamp status
Many design and equipment factors affect the UV dose delivered by the reactor. The Validated operating conditions must account for the following factors:
Lamp aging
Lamp sleeve fouling
UV transmittance (UVT) of the water
Inlet and outlet piping or channel configurations of the UV reactor
Dose distributions arising from the velocity profiles through the reactor
Failure of UV lamps or other critical system components
