New water bottling plant provides MND-B Soldiers with life-giving source

Photo By Staff Sgt. Kevin Lovel | Sandor Silviu, packaging operator, Oasis International Waters, Inc., makes sure the conveyor belt is operating at the correct speed at the new water bottling factory here. The new factory will produce 200,000 to 450,000 one liter bottles of fresh water daily.  

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

05.01.2006

Story by Staff Sgt. Kevin Lovel 

363rd Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq - One of the life-giving sources that every Soldier depends on throughout their year-long tour in Iraq " especially during the summer months " will now be produced and bottled here.

The new 52,000-square foot facility known simply as "Bottled Water Factory Six" is situated next to the "Z" Lake, between Camp Liberty and Camp Victory, and will produce 200,000 to 450,000 one-liter bottles of drinking water 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week, to meet the hydration needs of Multi-National Division " Baghdad Soldiers and civilian workers.

The facility was built, paid for and is owned and operated by Al Morrell Development and Oasis International Waters, Inc.

"The contract is to supply the military with bottled-water capability. The company supplies the water for a price. Our contract says that we supply and own all of the infrastructure, while the military gave us the land to put it on and the water source," said Tom Newell, Middle East general manager, AMD.

The "Z" Lake, which is supplied by the Tigris River, is the source of the water used in the purification and bottling process, said Newell, but the facility also has a backup of 150,000 gallons of source water on site.

"The plant took about 90 days to build," said Newell. American engineers and construction workers from the Philippines, India, Pakistan and Romania were involved in the construction of the plant, he noted.

Water from the plant will save the U. S. government a substantial amount of money.

"The (present) cost of a case of our water is $3.50 per case of one-liter bottles. The military was previously buying cases of 1.5-liter bottles for $12.50 a case," said Newell.

The water produced here will have an added safety and welfare benefit for Soldiers.

"Currently, bottled water used by U. S. Forces comes from Kuwait. By producing our own water, it ensures better force health protection and quality control," said Maj. William Argo, MND-B environmental science officer, 4th Infantry Division. "In addition, it will reduce the number of trucks (military and civilian) on the road delivering water across Iraq."

"This is some of the safest water around. It's filtered four times before it enters the bottle," said Master Sgt. Dwayne Wooten, contracting officer representative, 18th Corps Support Battalion, Sustainment Brigade, 4th Inf. Div. "You're getting pure water. We don't re-introduce new minerals into the water."

"We're taking water to the "Aquafina" level, which is totally pure water," added Newell. "It gets it to a completely purified state."

A pain-staking, multi-step process insures that the water is safe, said Wooten. Three 50,000-gallon bags of source water are included in the process. Water goes from the first bag to a chlorination and filtering machine, then enters the second bag and flows into a Reverse Osmosis Water Purifying Unit which more finely-tunes the filtering process.

"Basically, ROWPU systems can take virtually any water source and make it drinkable where other filtering processes cannot," said Argo. After the ROWPU process is completed, the water enters the third bag. It is already considered "potable" water by that time, but cannot yet be consumed as drinking water, said Wooten.

The final filtering process pushes the water through an ozonator, a system that injects ozone into the water to kill any microorganisms that still may be present.

"Ozone is used in bottled-water production to essentially sanitize the water and is key in destroying any microbiological contamination," said Argo. "Ozone is injected into the bottled-water process to help remove organics, which may contribute to color, odor or even taste."

"Environmentally, ozone leaves no harmful breakdown of products and it also increases bottled water shelf life," said Argo.

After this final process, the water is ready to be bottled. The bottles that will be used at Factory Six are shorter than those Soldiers have become accustomed to drinking from and will also feature a wider spout, said Wooten.

"The longer, taller bottles weren't holding up as well in shipment on the pallets," said Mr. Tom H. Edwards, site manager, Oasis International Waters.

The factory will be manned by at least 70 workers. Production will run on two 12-hour shifts, said Wooten.

• Date Taken: 05.01.2006
• Date Posted: 05.01.2006 11:58
• Story ID: 6189
• Location: BAGHDAD, IQ