MUNICIPAL APPLICATIONS - Permanganate

Potassium permanganate has a long history of successful application in drinking water treatment, providing both primary and secondary benefits.  It is widely used by facilities to help meet regulatory rules and public pressures to produce quality drinking water.

Queensboro Water Treatment Plant in Bear Mountain, New York has an average flow of 150,000 GPD.  In the summer of 2000, the plant personnel replaced chlorine with permanganate as a pre-oxidant to control iron, manganese, taste and odor, color, and turbidity. CARUSOL® Liquid Permanganate was chosen over the granular Potassium permanganate because it could be easily stored and handled.  The feed equipment was simplified, and the manpower needed would be minimized. More...

Potassium permanganate is used in the Iron (Fe) and Manganese (Mn) removal processes in both surface water and ground water systems that employ filtration.  Permanganate oxidizes soluble iron and manganese to insoluble precipitates.  The precipitates are removed from the water supply in the clarification and filtration processes. More...

Potassium permanganate is used to remove arsenic (As) in ground water treatment systems that employ filtration.  Permanganate oxidizes arsenic (As³⁺) to As⁵⁺ that can adsorb to insoluable precipitates such as hydros manganese hydroxides or ferric hydroxide.  The precipitates are then removed from the water supply in the clarification and filtration processes.  Permanganate can also be used for arsenic removal in surface water plants that have filtration. More...

Potassium permanganate is used in systems treating surface water to aid in the control of off-flavor tastes and odors.  Off-flavors are usually attributed to the presence of blue-green algae in the water supply.  The oxidant has been found to be most effective in treating off-flavors described as fishy, septic, grassy, and cucumber. In many cases permanganate will compliment activated carbon and other treatment processes resulting in a cost-effective taste and odor control program. More...

The Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District (E.V.M.W.D.) is located in south central California just west of Los Angles.  The District covers a service area of 96 square miles, providing water and sewer services to over 86,000 persons.  The average daily water demand is 37 MGD.  Of that volume, 33% is well water, 37% is imported water from other districts, and the remainder is surface water.  The potential for Trihalomethane (THM) formation was from the surface water.  Because of the potential for high THM formation, it was decided to evaluate CAIROX® Potassium permanganate as an alternative pre-oxidant to chlorine. More ...

The Carbondale Water Treatment Plant (Carbondale, Illinois) with a design capacity of 8 MGD and an average flow of 4.6 MGD draws its water from Cedar Creek Lake. Because of moderately high raw water TOC levels (4.3-6.5 mg/L) and low alkalinity (36-40 mg/L as CaCO3 ), Carbondale is required to attain 45% TOC removal under the Disinfection/Disinfection Byproduct (D/DBP) Rule.  Based on their HAA and THM formation potentials (80-200 and 140-260 µg/L respectively), effective treatment is required, especially during summer months when temperatures are high and DBP formation reaches its peak.  Carbondale personnel investigated a number of treatment options to minimize DBP formation and proactively achieve the Stage 2 limit of 30 µg/L for HAAs.  These options included replacing chlorine with CAIROX® Potassium permanganate as the pre-oxidant. In addition to DBP control, pre-oxidation with CAIROX® was evaluated for manganese, and taste and odor (T&O) problems. More...

Trihalomethanes (THMs) are formed when chlorine reacts with the organic precursors in raw water.  These precursors include humic and fulvic acids. Moving the point of chlorination from the raw water to later in the treatment and practicing effective coagulation of the precursors can result in a 40% to 70% reduction in trihalomethane levels.  Current regulations limit THM concentrations in finished water to 80 µg/L. More...