Large areas of the Chesapeake Bay watershed support intense agricultural operations including crop farming, large poultry production facilities (LPPFs), and confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Increasingly, these agricultural operations add significant amounts of pollutants, from water runoff into the watersheds, and infiltrate the groundwater. For example, the Shenandoah Valley has suffered from years of agricultural operations and livestock production causing increased nitrates and phosphorus in the groundwater. Typically, elevated levels of nitrates, nitrites, phosphorus, and arsenic among others, are found, causing watershed fish kills and impact to public health in myriad ways. Micronic Technologies has developed, MicroDesalTM, a patented low-pressure, low-temperature, rapid-evaporation technology, to treat contaminated water, including these dangerous contaminants. Preliminary MicroDesalTM testing indicates effective removal of heavy metals and other contaminants, including phosphorous, arsenic, nitrates, and bacteria. For example, the technology reduced phosphorous to less than 0.03 mg/L from 2.0 mg/L, nitrates to .40 mg/l from446.1, and nitrites to 0.4 mg/L from 27 mg/L.The proposed SBIR Phase I research objective is to validate reliability and reproducibility of these initial test results by reducing highly contaminated water pollutants to below EPA drinking water standards, through a robust testing regime. Phosphates, nitrites, nitrates, arsenic, heavy metals, and other agriculturally related pollutants from surface runoff water into the Chesapeake Bay, will be tested over two seasons. Micronic will obtain samples from four strategic watershed locations that are representative of agriculturally related water runoff conditions selected in collaboration with the Chesapeake Bay Program Office, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Potomac River Keepers, and Shenandoah River Keepers. This effort will provide the framework for Phase II which will include customization and fabrication of a field pilot system, as well as testing a wider suite of contaminants, including endocrine disruptors, bacteria, and other particular contaminants that are health hazards. This research will benefit the agricultural community by providing a low-cost, highly efficient technology to remove pollutants commonly associated with agricultural operations. It will support LPPFs and CAFOs in meeting increased regulatory requirements as well as the agricultural industry commitment to reduce impact on surface water pollution and protect groundwater sources. MicroDesalTM is compact and expected to be scalable to larger capacity based on external engineering assessments. Micronic has identified markets for 1,500; 5,000; 15,000; 20,000; and 150,000 gallons per day of treatment capacity. Each capacity level is targeted for a specific commercial customer application based on extensive discussions with a variety of public and private industry sectors and market research. Anticipated markets for portable units include agricultural wastewater lagoons for treatment and reuse that protect groundwater supplies for human consumption in rural areas; hydraulic fracking produced water at the wellhead for reuse; air pollution control blow down water at power utilities; a wide variety of desalination applications, including oil and gas offshore production platforms, where economically produced clean water is needed to replace current systems.
