BioSpray Tower will disinfect hard, nonporous surfaces, says the manufacturer. The EPA-registered disinfectant kills 99.9 percent of Legionella pneumophila when correctly applied to hard, nonporous surfaces like cooling towers.

Facility managers are often faced with a decision whether to test utility and potable water for Legionella bacteria. Moreover, there are two different event types that most owners will face regarding Legionella: surveillance and clinical. In a blog post, U.S. Water explores when and how many locations to test.

The only way to determine if your cooling tower system is clean is Legionella testing. It gives operators and operators an opportunity to find out if their system contains high levels of Legionella. If elevated levels of bacteria are measured, owners and operators should take corrective measures to clean and disinfect the tower. 

Winter layup of cooling towers can create an environment susceptible to growth and incubation of corrosion-causing bacteria. Cooling tower cleaning and maintenance prior to spring startup is recommended by OSHA to remove biofilm and prevent Legionella bacteria. 

A third-party study by Special Pathogens Laboratory, a CDC-ELITE facility, demonstrated that reactive oxygen species (ROS) ions were effective at achieving a 6-log reduction of Legionella Pneumophila in less than 10 seconds after reaching an ORP +650 mv.

During process cooling, the cooling water absorbs large volumes of airborne particulate while the cooling tower acts as an air scrubber, filtering the surrounding air. With time, these fine particles can build up and settle within the system, adversely affecting cooling performance while lowering the life of wetted subcomponents. 

BioSpray Tower will disinfect hard, nonporous surfaces, says the manufacturer. The EPA-registered disinfectant kills 99.9 percent of Legionella pneumophila when correctly applied to hard, nonporous surfaces like cooling towers.

Microbiological testing, specifically for total bacteria and Legionella bacteria in cooling tower water systems, has been using a methodology that basically has not changed for many years. The recent Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks due to cooling tower water systems has prompted a closer look at the methodology to determine if there is a need to consider a change that would be more representative of the true microbiological levels in these systems.

At times, it seems as though innovative technologies outpace our ability to conceive their transformative effect. Take, for instance, the iPod and the iPhone. 

Whether you are on-boarding a new water cooling system or starting up a system closed last fall, proper water treatment can help you bring the system online while avoiding problems with scale, corrosion and microbiological growth and Legionella.