Hach Company announced today its “See the BIG Picture” contest for municipal wastewater plants and industrial sites treating wastewater in the United States. Awardees will receive Hach equipment of their choice with the prizes awarded as follows:

• $50,000 of Hach equipment to one Municipal site
   
• $50,000 of Hach equipment to one Industrial site
   
• $40,000 of Hach equipment to the Fan Favorite recipient, as voted on at: www.hach.com/bigpicture

The municipal and industrial recipients will be announced at WEFTEC2011, in Los Angeles, CA on October 18, 2011 and the Fan Favorite recipient will be announced November 7, 2011.

“The 2010 BIG Picture Contest awarded $80,000 of Hach equipment to three municipalities and we want to further our reach in 2011 by including industrial sites. We want to raise awareness of the benefits of increased testing and this contest is a great vehicle for our message to be heard.” explained Kurt Tyler, Hach VP of Marketing. “We want to help municipalities and industrial sites succeed in meeting more stringent regulations with tighter budgets and look forward to the creative entries.”

The contest is designed to help municipal wastewater treatment plants and industrial sites understand the benefits of increasing their nutrient monitoring to optimize their nitrogen and phosphorus removal.

More frequent monitoring will help plants “See the BIG Picture” of their operations, thereby decreasing expensive chemical and energy costs while helping address one of the most sensitive environmental issues in wastewater treatment. Currently most plants only do required nutrient monitoring, so they’re unable to adjust chemical dosing or aeration to the specific changes occurring in real-time.

The City of Bryan, Texas was awarded the First Runner-Up award of $20,000 of Hach equipment in 2010. Mark Jurica, Treatment and Compliance Manager for the City of Bryan, Texas noted “Winning Hach’s See the BIG Picture Contest has changed the appearance and layout of our laboratory. The HQ40d meter continues to impress us every day. Having one instrument that retains its own calibration record and allows technicians to run BOD and ammonia is awesome! Analysis results can be transferred to a flash drive and the worry of replacing membrane tips is gone because the meter tells us when service is needed. We are now moving forward with our own money to further our process control by installing Hach DO probes and chlorine analyzers for our treatment plant.”

Entries must be submitted at www.hach.com/bigpicture by August 31, 2011. Entrants should creatively state why they should be awarded the equipment. Submissions must be either a video or PowerPoint file. Prize recipients will be determined according to expected results from products requested, level of creativity, impact of award on the plant, and extent of the need. For complete rules and eligibility, visit www.hach.com/bigpicture.