Trillions of bubbles will clean a murky pond on the National Mall
Washington, D.C. (ABC7) — The man-made pond at Constitution Gardens along the National Mall is getting a deep clean with tiny bubbles filled with oxygen and ozone being pumped into the water by the trillions.
Chest-high waders are a must for the murky water in Northwest Washington. Blue Nano Technologies uses microscopic bubbles to clean ponds, lakes and other bodies of water without the use of harsh chemicals.
“Just going out there to check the nozzle,” said Greg Chapas of Blue Nano Technologies as he walked into the waste-high water. “Definitely a lot of sediment sitting on the bottom. A little squishy.”
“We have long had issues and problems with the water quality in Constitution Gardens. It was poorly designed in the 1970s, it’s not sustainable, there’s no circulation system, there’s not even any water bubblers,” said National Park Service spokesperson Mike Litterst.
Four hoses span the 5-million-gallon pond pumping trillions of tiny bubbles into the water.
“There’s so much science involved in this and so much physics involved in it, it’s almost mind blowing,” said Barry Hinton, vice president of operations for Blue Nano Technologies.
Blue Nano is donating the new tech to the National Park Service to show what the equipment can do. This is the largest project the young company has undertaken since its inception in June.
“To have a way to clean the water and keep it clean, without having to use chemicals, harsh chemicals, that’s really something that we’re intrigued by,” said Litterst.
The dirty water is pulled from the pond and run through a “nano bubbler.” The miniscule bubbles with oxygen and ozone are sent back into the water. Instead of floating to the top and bursting, these settle to the bottom. The bubbles are so small, more than 50,000,000 can fit inside the same volume of water as a normal bubble.
Hinton showed ABC7 News samples of what the water looked like before the water treatment and two days after treatment. A green laser pointed through the side of the glass jar demonstrated the process.
“If you take a look at the laser and you see the light color beam in there, that’s actually the bubbles,” said Hinton.
In just a couple weeks, the pond should be much clearer.
“What remains is the oxygen which keeps the health of the water in that condition,” said Hinton.
