Governor's Award Press Release
FOR MEDIA INFORMATION:
Samantha Mote (770) 793-7017
WELLSTAR HEALTH SYSTEM TO RECEIVE GOVERNOR’S AWARD FOR LAUNDRY WASTEWATER RECYCLING SYSTEM
MARIETTA, Ga. (September 16, 2002) – WellStar Health System’s support service laundry facility will receive a Governor’s Award for Pollution Prevention for their AquaRecycle Wastewater Recycle System. The awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday, September 18 at noon at the Georgia State Ballroom. The Governor’s Award is presented each year to organizations that demonstrate outstanding leadership and commitment to Georgia’s environment through innovative pollution prevention efforts.
WellStar’s laundry facility purchased a revolutionary new wastewater recycling system last year from Aqua Recycle, a Marietta, Georgia based company. The EMI 175 GPM Laundry Wastewater Recycling System, installed in January of 2001, is the only 100% closed loop and completed pressurized system on the market. WellStar’s laundry operation had been using 42 million gallons of water annually to wash 14.5 million pounds of laundry. With the addition of the new Laundry Wastewater Recycle System from Aqua Recycle, WellStar is enjoying an 85% decrease in city water use and has reduced its sewer wastewater discharge by almost 95%. This represents a savings of 36 million gallons of water a year or over a quarter of a billion gallons over the next ten years.
Austin Ashley, Director of the WellStar Support Services Laundry, states “From an environmental standpoint this is a great opportunity for WellStar Health System to give something back to the community and also show the healthcare industry is doing everything it can to lower costs. We are one of the major water users in Cobb County and we feel we are doing our fair share to conserve our natural resources.”
Another major benefit provided from Aqua Recycle’s Laundry Recycle System is in energy savings. The temperature of the wastewater being recycled averages between 120 and 130 degrees. After the recycle process, water is being reused at temperatures exceeding 120 degrees. This reduces natural gas and heating costs substantially since the water is 40-50 degrees hotter than before recycling.
As of July 31st, 2002, WellStar Health System has had the following cost savings: $65,873 in water; $93,924 in sewer and $94,146 in energy. This is a total cost savings of $253,943. The system costs $260,000. The payback is within 12 months. There have also been significant reductions in chemical usage, and a decrease in drying times has extended the life of the linens.
This recycle system requires no chemicals since it cleans the water using several filtration processes sending the wastewater through natural earth products contained in highly pressurized vessels. The water is then deodorized and disinfected through a UV (ultra violet) light and returned clean for reuse. Aqua Recycle is thrilled with the results of its first installation of this new product line.
Jeff Lebedin, president of Aqua Recycle says, “Hotels and Hospitals are perfect laundry operations for our recycle system. Not only are they desperate for ways to cut operating costs and increase profits, they are imposing internal directives requiring environmental savings programs. Metro Atlanta alone has approximately 31,764 hotel rooms. If metro Atlanta hotels recycled their laundry water, they would save the city over 365 million gallons of water annually, or over 3.6 billion gallons over a 10 year period. What a perfect opportunity to provide environmental programs and also provide substantial cost reductions. We are finding most of our systems provide a payback of less than two years.”
WellStar Health System’s Laundry operation began as a joint venture between WellStar Cobb and WellStar Kennestone hospitals to consolidate laundry operations to reduce costs. WellStar Health System grew from that joint venture.
The installation of this Water Recycle System not only provides cost savings to the Health System, but is also evidence that WellStar is actively pursuing efforts to be environmentally responsible. “We encourage any large water users to look at the benefit this Water Recycle System has to offer to the community,” says Ashley. WellStar Health System is a member of the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce which is a member of the Regional Business Coalition (RBC).
The RBC is a consortium of fifteen chambers of commerce in the Atlanta region: Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Conyers-Rockdale, Cumming-Forsyth, Dekalb, Douglas, Fayette, Greater North Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Metro Atlanta, Newnan-Coweta, South Fulton, and central Atlanta Progress. A non-partisan, not-for-profit association, the RBC focuses on common concerns that are unconstrained by jurisdictional boundaries. Their mission is to provide business leadership on natural resource and infrastructure issues critical to the region’s continued prosperity.
The Clean Water Initiative Task Force, co-sponsored by the RBC and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, is a 37-member panel or business, government and community leaders. The task force was created to address the water quality crisis that developed as a direct result of metro Atlanta’s growth and prosperity.
WellStar Health System is a community-owned and operated network including Cobb, Douglas, Kennestone, Paulding and Windy Hill hospitals; WellStar Physicians Group; Urgent Care Centers; Health Place; Homecare; Hospice; Atherton Place; and WellStar Foundation.