Hilda Helen Oxidane, PhD, CWT, sat in her immaculately white laboratory studying the results of her latest scale inhibition analysis of a new polymer she had been developing. It looked promising. She jumped a little when her smartphone came to life in her lab-coat pocket, ringing once…twice…no, only once. She was too efficient to waste time.

“Hello, Doctor H2O here. The best water treater this side of the Ohio, diagnosing water problems for a healthier system. How may I help you?”

“Wait a minute, doesn’t your father, Detective H2O, say the exact same thing? How can you both be the best water treater this side of the Ohio?” the voice on the other end of the line asked.

“We live on opposite sides of the Ohio river. Now that we have gotten that cleared up, how may I help you?”

“Well, Doc, this is Danny down at Waterton Food and Beverage. Our softener is sick,” replied Danny.

“What are the symptoms?” asked Doctor H2O.

“She’s not getting a full a run. She produces hard water long before she should. We need your services, Doc. We heard you make house calls.”

“Oh yes, I make house calls…powerhouse calls. I will be over shortly,” replied the water doctor.

* * *

Doctor H2O arrived at Waterton Food and Beverage in her white, late-model Mercedes. She removed her black test bag from the trunk, checked in with the front-gate guards, and made her way to the Powerhouse.

On her way to see Danny, the Powerhouse Superintendent, she stopped briefly to peruse the Powerhouse logbook. She saw several notes of the water softeners producing hard water prematurely with the units manually placed into regeneration. There was definitely a problem here.

“Doc! You made it! Glad to see you!” said Danny.

“You too, Danny,” she replied. “Let’s take a look at this water softener of yours.”

Making their way down the stairs to the Powerhouse basement, the water softener loomed before them.

“She’s actually two twin-alternating softeners, but we see her as one large piece of equipment,” said Danny.

“If you don’t mind me asking, do you refer to all of your water-treatment unit operations using feminine pronouns?”

“Oh no,” said Danny. “That RO over there is a ‘he.’ We’re an equal opportunity offender here,” he chuckled.

“I see,” smiled the water doctor.

Doctor H2O reviewed the water treatment logs, observing, “So both water softener tanks are exhibiting premature hardness breakthrough at approximately the same time. That means the likely cause is common to both of them and not a mechanical issue on an individual unit itself. Let’s start at the beginning, though, by doing an analysis of the incoming city water. I want to know if anything has changed.”

Opening her black bag, she extracted her water testing supplies and started running her analysis on the city water. Comparing it to her notes from previous Waterton city water analysis, she observed, “Nothing has changed significantly with the city water. Total hardness, pH, iron, etc. are all basically the same. The free chlorine is higher than many areas around the city at greater than 1 ppm, but still within the city’s control parameters. By my calculations, your water softener is producing only 85% of the designed softening capacity and dropping.”

“Wow, Doc! I told you she was sick!” responded Danny.

“Yes, our next step is to manually place the online softener vessel into regeneration, observe the steps, and perform an elution study to ensure proper brine concentrations are being reached.”

Doctor H2O stood beside the softener drain line that opened to the floor drain as Danny opened the control box and initiated a manual regeneration. Valves opened and closed, the standby softener unit came online, and the online unit went into regeneration. The first step was a backwash to expand the resin bed and remove any debris or broken beads.

“On a smaller unit, I could use a bucket to measure the flowrates out of the softener during each regeneration step to ensure they met manufacturer’s specifications or industry standards. With flow as large as this where that is impossible, one must fall back up observation instead of absolute accuracy,” said the water doctor.

While the backwash continued, Doctor H2O inspected the brine tank and tested its level of saturation with her sodium chloride salometer. It was 100% saturated, as it should have been. She also measured the brine tank diameter and brine depth. The backwash went through its entire cycle as expected for as long as expected. No cause for malady so far.

With salometer and graduated cylinder in hand, when the brine cycle started, Doctor H2O started recording the salinity of the water every three minutes. “Some people like to measure every five minutes, but I find I get a much more detailed elution curve every three minutes. Sometimes the enhanced data resolution helps.”

At the end of the brine cycle, the slow rinse cycle started. Doctor H2O measured the brine depth again, while keeping an eye on the slow rinse cycle flow and duration. Lastly, the fast rinse cycle started, which she observed and timed as well.

Plotting the salometer data points in her tablet computer, Danny watched over her shoulder and asked, “Well, did you find anything?”

“No,” replied the water doctor. “This is a textbook example of what an elution curve should be. It shows just over 30 salometer degrees for 30 minutes, per industry standards. I calculated the brine usage from the change in the brine tank level, and that is perfectly within industry standards as well. So far, we have a healthy specimen. Let me take a closer look at the floor drain area.”

Using the flashlight setting on her smartphone, Doctor H2O made a close inspection of the floor drain. “Do you see this, Danny?”

“See what, Doc?”

“These little broken resin beads. There aren’t many, but there are a few. You don’t have a resin trap installed, I see, which could have been helpful. I think it is time for a surgical approach. Let’s open the standby softener up. With the other unit online, we have several hours before that one is due for regeneration,” said Doctor H2O.

“Sure, whatever you say, Doc.”

Relieving the water pressure on the standby softener, Danny opened the top maintenance hole on the softener vessel. After inspecting the ladder, Doctor H2O climbed up and took a look. The surface of the resin bed was relatively even. No obvious signs of uneven flow or channeling. The surface also looked clean and free of debris. Next, she measured how far the resin bed started from the top of the vessel and marked this level on the side of the unit. There were no previous markings, so it was not possible to see if there had been any change.

“What do you see up there, Doctor H2O?” asked Danny.

“So far, so good. Now to take a core resin sample.” Improvising a resin thief with PVC piping, she drove it into the resin bed and obtained the best representative sample that she could. Pulling out her magnifying glass, she took a look at the resin.

“The color looks typical, although without a sample of the original resin, it’s hard to tell what color it truly was originally. I do see some broken beads in here,” the water doctor observed. Then she placed some resin beads between her fingers and began to rub them around.

“Danny! Come here stat!”

“What’s up, Doc?” asked Danny as he came running.

“Watch this,” replied Doctor H2O as she rubbed more resin beads between her fingers.

“They disintegrated! That’s weird!” said Danny. “What’s happening here?”

“We’ve made our diagnosis, Danny. That’s what’s happening. Your resin is breaking down due to the over 1 ppm free chlorine in your incoming city water. The chlorine attacks the polystyrene cross linking in the resin beads, causing its moisture content to rise and the beads to swell. The beads start to break and get washed out with the backwash, reducing overall capacity. I prescribe replacing the resin as soon as possible,” said Doctor H2O.

“I see. Is there anything we can do to prevent the new resin from degrading the same way?” asked Danny.

“That’s a great question,” replied Doctor H2O. “While there is really no such thing as a chlorine resistant softener resin, you can get resins with higher cross linkings that will withstand the chlorine oxidation for longer periods of time. You could also install dechlorination technology up stream of the water softener, such as a carbon filter. I’ll work up a report on a few options.”

“Our softener will be on the mend running at full capacity soon because of you. Thanks, Doctor H2O!”

Dusting off her white lab coat and picking up her black testing bag, Doctor H2O replied, “It’s all in a day’s work, Danny. Healing water treatment problems is in my blood.”

* * *

In industrial plants across sprawling Waterton, where boilers get upset and cooling towers operate at fever pitch, one woman has made it her calling to diagnosis their ills to sooth corrosion, mitigate scale, disinfect microbes, and save water drop by drop. That woman is Doctor H2O. Best water treater this side of the Ohio. One doctor that still makes house calls…power house calls.