BlueinGreen Technology Used to Maintain Campus Pond

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Research and Technology Park introduced a new water-quality management system for its campus retention pond last week that will keep the pond oxygenated, prevent odors, and assist in nutrient management and algae control in an environmentally friendly way. The new technology is the work of BlueInGreen LLC and was made possible by a grant from a Fortune 500 company that helps fund clean water initiatives related to storm water runoff, including ponds and other “receiving waters” in settings such as the one on the Technology Park campus.

The University of Arkansas Technology Development Foundation submitted a grant application on behalf of the Technology Park and chose BlueInGreen LLC to develop, build, install and operate a supersaturated dissolved oxygen system for the project. BlueInGreen was established to provide innovative new products for improving and maintaining water quality. The company is being recognized nationally for its work and received the prestigious Innovative Technology Award from the Water Environment Federation. BlueInGreen is a portfolio company of Virtual Incubation, a privately held venture development firm located in the Arkansas Research and Technology Park.

“Construction of the Enterprise Building at the park required a retention pond to capture run-off from the roof and nearby asphalt parking lot,” said Phil Stafford, president of the foundation. The building and associated grounds were built subject to criteria of the Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design to optimize its cost of operation and minimize environmental impact. Stafford says the grant and the installation of the dissolved oxygen system assures that the campus retention pond will remain an amenity, rather than a liability, explaining that such ponds can often become septic at times and produce odors if not properly aerated.

“This grant created a win-win allowing us to utilize BlueInGreen, a business on the campus, to showcase how its new patented SDOX technology can provide our campus an optimum solution for maintaining our retention pond,” Stafford said. BlueInGreen’s SDOX technology is designed to offer a cost-effective, small footprint solution to treat water bodies through the efficient delivery of dissolved oxygen. The dissolved oxygen system will provide for the release of dissolved oxygen to the run-off water in the pond as well as the required microbes to rapidly break down hydrocarbons, preventing the pond from becoming stagnant. 

“We are extremely pleased with the efforts of the U of A Technology Development Foundation and its President, Phil Stafford, in getting this grant from a great company and worldwide leader in innovation and choosing our company to manage this project,” said Clete Brewer, chief executive officer of BlueInGreen. “BlueInGreen is a recognized innovator in water quality and sustainability practices and in giving back to the environment in smart ways that improve business and the eco-system, a position that works well for the foundation, as well as our work in other areas of the United States.

“Our larger units handle millions of gallons of water a day, so this is our first smaller scale system. Our technology offers a green solution which ensures that even a shallow wet structure as this Tech Park pond never produces odors, and never requires chemical treatments that could potentially harm the environment or wildlife. We have the benefit of the unit being located just outside our headquarters on the Tech Park campus, and our engineering team plan to use the already successful system as a prototype for shopping centers and similarly sized neighborhood developments.”

Stafford says installation of the dissolved oxygen system was completed in early August and has been running efficiently over the 3-week testing period. It will provide an educational component for its “optimal pond ecosystem,” as it will provide for advanced studies in ecology, environmental engineering and aquatic landscaping by researchers at the University of Arkansas. It will also offer local high school biology classes access to a high “dissolved oxygen” water body for comparative studies.

For more information about the Arkansas Research and Technology Park visit uark.edu/ua/artp/ For more information about BlueInGreen visit BlueInGreen.com. To see how the supersaturated dissolved oxygen technology works, check out BlueInGreen.com/technology and select “play video.”