Inventor pitches mobile dissolved-air flotation barge for pond algae; commissioners and residents raise feasibility, permitting and ecological concerns

Mark Bellora, founder of Clear Waterways Group, presented a prototype mobile dissolved-air flotation clarifier and described pilot tests the company conducted, including third-party laboratory measures the presenter cited for one earlier test.

Bellora said the prototype processes about 65 gallons per minute and that a planned version 2 would treat roughly 200 gallons per minute; he described the prototype as about 8 feet 5 inches wide and 18 feet long and said the wet weight is approximately 5,700 pounds. Bellora said a single day (eight hours) of treatment produced three loads of sludge totaling about 135 gallons and that third-party results showed average removals of about 74% of total suspended solids, 74% of total nitrogen associated with those solids and 69% of total phosphorus.

Commissioners and members of the public responded with technical and logistical questions. Multiple speakers raised the ponds’ shallow depths…