Most of us have seen the Oscar-winning movie “Erin Brockovich.” The 2000 film chronicled the true story of Erin Brockovich, an American legal clerk who led a class action suit against Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) for contaminating the groundwater in Hinkley, a small community in California’s Mojave Desert. The company used hexavalent chromium as a rust inhibitor in its’ cooling towers until 1966, contaminating the town’s groundwater. The case was settled in 1996 for $333 million. By 2016, the long-term effects of the cancer-causing chemical prompted the New York Times to label Hinkley as little more than a ghost town.
Twenty-five years later people are still talking about it. On June 10, 2021, a “20/20” Primetime Special “The Real Rebel: The Erin Brockovich Story” aired featuring interviews with Brockovich and some of the residents that remain in Hinkley.
Under the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) monitors the chemicals used in cooling towers to minimize scaling and the growth of viruses and bacteria. In the heavy industrial and utility markets alone, the cooling tower industry is expected to grow to $2.3 [US] billion by 2025. Germany is projected to add more than $46 [US] million with other European countries contributing more than $37.2 [US] million. To date there are approximately two million cooling towers across the U.S. Demand for the versatile device continues to grow among industries dominated by petroleum refineries, petrochemical plants, power generation, food and beverage and pulp and paper. Cooling towers are also used for everything from hotels and office buildings to hospitals, universities and residential towers. More recently, enormous data centers built to support “public cloud” companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft also require cooling towers.
At Tower Tech, we understand how important it is to choose the right cooling tower system. That’s why we developed patented technology 27 years ago that today, remains radically from other products in the industry. We improved function, performance, ease of installation and maintenance in ways that give customers advantages over conventional cooling tower designs. How? Simply put, our factory-built, modular cooling tower system provides sustainable efficiencies that reduce toxic drift by up to 92 percent. It is faster to install and delivers a longer life cycle expectancy when compared with conventional designs. We build the system from pultruded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) for corrosion resistance, along with other high-performance non-corrosive materials. This translates to lower maintenance. Our cooling towers reduce the volume and expense of chemicals needed to treat recirculating water loops. See the list of features and benefits on our website.
Our factory-assembled cooling towers arrive on a conventional tractor trailer. On-site, each tower installation takes less than an hour. A unique rotary spray nozzle eliminates clogging, a problem with conventional nozzles. This is particularly important for dirty water applications and those environments susceptible to bacterial growth. The nozzle’s low pressure requirements reduce tower height and pumping head energy costs.
Traditional cooling towers use cold water collection basins. In addition to acting as a trash collector, this design encourages areas of stagnant water that can shelter bacteria like Legionella. The combination of sunlight and standing water also promotes higher levels of sediment which dictates the need for more algaecides and biocides. Our Flow-Thru Basin is an enclosed, elevated configuration that solves these problems and minimizes maintenance while reducing energy consumption. Most importantly, the deadly risk of Legionella outbreaks is practically non-existent.
A matrix of small fans gives the Tower Tech cooling system built-in redundancy for minimal downtime. Our products have been Cooling Technology Institute (CTI) certified for thermal performance since 1993. In 2020, the manufacturing of Tower Tech’s cooling towers also became certified to ISO 9001:2015 as part of Creative Pultrusions achieving continued third-party registration to the standard. Our products are 100 percent American-made at a Creative Pultrusions manufacturing facility. In 2001, we implemented a company-wide quality management process. Most of our team at Tower Tech has earned Six Sigma Black Belts or Green Belts. Quality and performance are hallmarks for us.
Don’t miss our next blog where we show you how our products help save two of your most valuable resources – time and money.