Photo By Spc. Rochelle Prince-Krueger | Pfc. Jeffery White (left) and Spc. Jamie Black, both water treatment specialist...... read more read more
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The 87th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade, recently finished their 14-day field exercise to prepare the headquarter element for their upcoming deployment. All of their companies supported the battalion in the field by specializing in each of their individual missions varying from movement, maintenance and fuel just to name a few.
The Soldiers of 226th Composite Supply Company, 87th CSSB, 3rd IDSB, got to work with a new piece of equipment, the Tactical Water Purification System, also known as a Twips. It is fully mobile, can produce up to 1,500 gallons of water per hour and is self-contained, they just need to be near water to be able to initiate the process.
“The best thing about my job is the scenery,” said Pfc. Jeffery White, a water treatment specialist assigned to 226th CSC. “We always have a nice view because we always need to be by water, whether it be by a lake, pond, river or the ocean.
With today’s capabilities, sometimes the way we get water is overlooked. When Soldiers deploy, on many of the foreign operating bases, there are numerous water points where there are cases of water bottles for anyone to consume. Some of the larger bases are some sort of system for running water as well, but what about before when people first put their boots on the ground in that area, what did they do for water? It’s not like they could just go drink water out of the closest stream they see.
That is where the water treatment specialists of 226th CSC come into play. They are playfully known as water dogs because they are the ones in the field or on new FOBs or COBs that will ensure the Soldiers have the consumable water needed.
“We can basically take pond, brackish or sea water and turn it into consumable water,” said Spc. Jamie Black, a water treatment specialist assigned to 226th CSC. “I love actually being able to purify water and consuming it while we are in the field. Because, here in the garrison environment, we don’t get to utilize these types of machines as much.”
The 226th CSC has not purified water since 2011 when they traveled to Camp Atterbury, Indiana, for the Defense Chemical, Radiological, Biological and Nuclear Response Force mission, also known as DCRF. But more importantly this is the first time ever they have used a Twips.
All of the water dogs have worked with Twips in their advanced individual training and some from other units.
“Many of us just got back from a course in Virginia where we purified seawater with a Twips from the Atlantic Ocean,” Black said. “It was a great refresher and we brought back the information to cross-train the rest of our company.”
Black walked the purification process through. “Initially before we bring the equipment we need to recon and test the water to ensure we are able to purify it.
“We test the initial pH, TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) and the turbidity levels to ensure our equipment can handle the water and treat it. “
Once the water has been deemed capable of purification the Soldiers gear up with their over boots and put a hose with a strainer at the end into the water to start sucking the water.
“The strainer is there to ensure no large debris such as leaves, branches or fish get sucked up,” Black said. “In the raw water holding tank there is another strainer on top that strains out even smaller pieces because we can’t get anything that is not water into our systems or it could cause the Twips to break down.”
From the raw water holding take there is a hose that goes to the raw water inlet that is on the Twips container. Once the raw water inlet tank reaches capacity the purification process can begin.
“It filters through 12 micro-filtration tanks then into two reverse osmosis tanks. It sounds a little complicated but it just continues to purify and filter the water to get it to the best it can be,” said White. “There are no outside chemicals being used yet.”
“The final product comes out of the hose after the RO tanks where we add chlorine to it,” said Spc. Jasmin Sandoval, a water treatment specialist assigned to 226th CSC. “The chemical pump is what injects chlorine into the water is very similar to an IV drip. We adjust the amount that goes into the water depending on if it is being stored or consumed right away.
“The chlorine dissipates over time so we add two parts per million if we know the water will be sitting in the bag for a while,” Sandoval continued. “As long as the tests read anywhere from one to two ppm of chlorine it is consumable.”
For the field exercise, 226th CSC delivers water to their entire battalion for consumption.
“Some of us are being told it’s the best tasting water they have had since they moved to Georgia,” White said. “It’s a great morale booster to have everyone talk so highly of the water we treated.
“We all take our job very serious because if something goes wrong or we don’t use the right amount of chemicals it’s not just an oh well, it could be very detrimental and could potentially damage your body,” White said. “We rely on every one checking and rechecking to ensure that the water is good; it is tested every hour.”
The water dogs may have another mission where they will provide water to DENTAC for certain services. The water has been sent up for further testing and the company is standing by for more information.
| Date Taken: | 09.21.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 09.22.2015 14:18 |
| Story ID: | 176866 |
| Location: | FORT STEWART, GA, US |
| Hometown: | FORT STEWART, GA, US |
| Hometown: | HINESVILLE, GA, US |
| Hometown: | SAVANNAH, GA, US |
| Web Views: | 183 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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