Blue Water Technologies Inc., based in Hayden, Idaho, has been awarded a more than $400,000 subcontract to install its phosphorus-removal system in the wastewater treatment plant being built for the city of Plummer, Idaho.

Tom Daugherty, Blue Water's president, says the company will supply the equipment for its technology, supervise the installation and start-up, and handle the performance testing. Blue Water is scheduled to begin its work in November, and finish by early next spring.

Contractors Northwest Inc., of Coeur d'Alene, won a $5 million contract to construct the wastewater treatment plant in Plummer, which is located 35 miles south of Coeur d'Alene. The plant is designed to treat an average daily flow of up to 315,000 gallons of wastewater, with a peak capacity of 630,000 gallons a day. The plant is designed to be expanded later to double its initial capacity.

The new treatment plant is needed because the current system can't handle all the wastewater the community produces, and the current system isn't designed to reduce phosphorus levels in treated wastewater. Daugherty says the final limit for phosphorus was determined by the state of Idaho, the federal government, and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, setting it at 50 parts per billion.

He says Blue Water will install its Blue PRO advanced phosphorus-removal system, which lowers phosphorus to minimal levels. The system must be capable of ensuring that the Plummer plant's treated wastewater averages less than 50 parts per billion of contained phosphorus.

The Plummer sale is the company's sixth of the Blue PRO system since its first in 2005, with five municipal government customers and one industrial customer, Daugherty says.

Blue Water's technology uses a process that removes phosphorus from wastewater by filtering the water through chemically-enhanced sand. The sand used in the system is coated with hydrous ferric oxide, which gives it absorbent qualities to pick up waste particulates such as phosphorus.

The treated sand works its way through wastewater that normally would be ready for discharge, and as it does so, its coating rubs off and the coating absorbs phosphorus in the water. The system then separates by density the sand, clean water, and denser water that contains the phosphorus. The clean water is piped out for discharge, and the dirty water is sent back for further treatment. The sand is recoated and reused.

Blue Water, which employs 24 people, is a 6-year-old private company that originated as a technology transfer from the University of Idaho for advanced phosphorus removal. The company has licensed and invented additional technologies that target various wastewater contaminants.

The company sells phosphorus removal systems, wastewater reuse filtration, and primary treatment for municipal, industrial, and commercial customers.