ORANGE PARK, Fla. – There are plenty of stories of algae blooms showing up from the East to the West Coast, and from the Midwest to the South.
However, the solution to reducing the harmful substance starts at a laboratory in Orange Park, Sustainable Water Infrastructure Group, or SWIG.
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The toxins from algae blooms can harm waterways, animals and even people— making them sick, and at times proving to be fatal.
Algae blooms are a problem in many communities around Florida, especially in Clay County. SWIG is working to reduce the minerals and gases that could contribute to algae blooms.
Terrence Bush, a scientist at SWIG, gave News4JAX a tour of the facility where all the magic happens.
“The short and sweet of it is these are all basically miniature, examples of what would be out in the field,” Bush explains
SWIG’s system emulates what Mother Nature would do over time to clean the waterways. The focus, however, at the Orange Park campus is phosphorus removal for Doctor’s Lake leading into the St. Johns River.
Vincent Seibold, the director of operations for SWIG, said the organization is a startup company and he’s excited about the work he and his team are doing.
They treat the water by removing the phosphorus with what he calls a “media,” and then the water goes back to Clay’s water management to be released into Doctor’s Lake.
“Starting with the inflow structure, we have piping that’s going into our system,” Seibold explained. “The big manifold that goes all the way around the system, that’s the pipe and that’s constantly flowing.”
The process is all-natural and monitored daily.
To date, SWIG has removed over 6,500 pounds of phosphorus with its system. About 1.5 million gallons of water are treated every day.
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For perspective, larger wastewater plants are operating with over 100 million gallons a day.
“Now you have a media that contains phosphorus, so then that gets recycled for agricultural fertilizer operations,” Seibold said.