Evoqua Names Georgia Aquarium Winner of Second Annual Water Sustainability Award

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Evoqua Water Technologies (NYSE: AQUA), an industry leader in mission critical water treatment solutions, today named Georgia Aquarium the recipient of the Evoqua Water Sustainability Award for 2019. The award recognizes excellence in water stewardship, including companies using new or existing technologies in innovative, sustainable ways and companies that have made significant strides in water reduction.

Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the Western Hemisphere, is committed to working on behalf of all marine life through education, preservation, exceptional animal care and research across the globe. With hundreds of exhibits and tens of thousands of animals across seven major galleries, Georgia Aquarium must maintain life support system (LSS) processes that ensure the water is clean and healthy. The LSS systems consist of a combination of sand filtration, protein skimming and ozone disinfection. On top of this, the LSS team at Georgia Aquarium has developed a process of denitrification using fiberglass-reinforced plastic vessels, custom-built by Evoqua’s Neptune Benson, that house beneficial bacteria.

This process reduces nitrates that form in the aquarium’s 6.3-million-gallon Ocean Voyager exhibit. A recent study showed that the types of bacteria in the denitrification vessels are nearly identical to those found in applicable natural marine settings.

“Preserving water—the world’s most valuable resource—is at the heart of everything we do at Evoqua,” said Ron Keating, Evoqua CEO. “Each year, we’re excited to honor an organization that prizes sustainability as much as we do. Georgia Aquarium’s extraordinary LSS processes have made it a water savings hero, and we’re proud to be part of its efforts to enrich life through smart water use.”

“We are honored to be selected by Evoqua for this significant award that recognizes the hard work and dedication that goes into sustaining Georgia Aquarium’s Life Support Systems daily,” said John Masson, Director of Life Support Systems at Georgia Aquarium.

The award will be presented to Georgia Aquarium at an event in April, timed around Earth Day.

For the second year, Evoqua employees nominated companies from among its 38,000-customer base for their sustainability efforts to treat, re-use, and conserve water. Other companies shortlisted for the award included Johnson & Johnson and Phillips66.

Johnson & Johnson has a long history dating back to the early 1990s of conscientious energy use, water conservation, and utility minimization. Projects across the globe (from Cork, Ireland, to Malvern, Pennsylvania, U.S.), use recovery Reverse Osmosis (RO) to minimize water consumption and discharge to publicly owned treatment works.

WRB Refining, a joint venture between Phillips 66 and Cenovus Energy, recently completed a project at its Borger, Texas refinery that proved 400 gallons per minute (gpm) water savings. The project focused on water with high silica and salt content that was causing cooling tower inefficiency through scaling and fouling. The project repurposed existing Evoqua Water Technologies Reverse Osmosis (RO) equipment to help clean up the feed quality of the refinery cooling tower water.

To further highlight the importance of preserving water on World Water Day, Evoqua today released an infographic highlighting the influence water has on business, industry and modern life, including:

• Providing peak performance conditions for elite swimmers
• Creating award-winning beverages and ensuring food safety
• Producing microchips and solar cells
• Creating safe and sterile healthcare environments

To learn more about Evoqua and World Water Day, and to download the infographic, visit Evoqua’s World Water Day page.

Evoqua services more than 200,000 installations across the globe. For this reason, Evoqua understands the profound impact of providing solutions that ensure its customers and partners meet or exceed their sustainability goals. For more information on Evoqua’s sustainability efforts, as well as more information on the finalists, visit www.evoqua.com/sustainability.

About Georgia Aquarium

Georgia Aquarium is a leading 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Atlanta, Ga. that is Humane Certified by American Humane and accredited by the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Georgia Aquarium is committed to working on behalf of all marine life through education, preservation, exceptional animal care, and research across the globe. Georgia Aquarium continues its mission each day to inspire, educate, and entertain its millions of guests about the aquatic biodiversity throughout the world through its hundreds of exhibits and tens of thousands of animals across its seven major galleries. For more information, visit georgiaaquarium.org.