With an annual operating budget of $5.5 million, the City of DeKalb’s Water Resources Division oversees an annual water pumpage in excess of 1.6 billion gallons. Presently, the City draws its water from six deep wells and three shallow wells, and treats the water through five water treatment plants utilizing iron removal and ion-exchange softening. In the spring of 2000, (then) Assistant Director of Public Works (Water Resources) Gerald Bever contacted local Tnemec coating consultant Erik Otten. The City of DeKalb had plans for a $12 million WTP improvement program which included four totally new facilities, an addition to an existing facility, two new well houses, dozens of raw water transmission mains, piping and the repainting of a 1.0 MMG Hydropillar. The coatings systems needed would cover interior steel (tanks and piping), concrete floors, exterior split faced block, interior CMU, brine tanks and an elevated water storage tank. For these diverse needs, Otten recommended the following systems:

• Epoxy systems for lining the concrete brine tanks, and coating all interior steel and all interior CMU
• Zinc-rich urethane and epoxy system for the interior of the elevated water tank
• Zinc-rich urethane, epoxy and aliphatic acrylic polyurethane system for coating the elevated water tank exterior
• Epoxy systems for the floors of all five treatment plants and in all the offices
• Water repellents and stains for coating the exterior of three split face treatment plants and two brick treatment plants

“With all that a public works administrator has to deal with day to day, coatings failure is one issue I never had to deal with,” Bever said. “Tnemec products consistently adhere well and provide lasting protection, so I never have to worry about coatings for years to come. During this latest WTP improvement and expansion project, the applicators we hired all seemed familiar and comfortable with handling Tnemec products. That’s impressive. And finally, for the bottom line, all this work came in under budget.”