Metropolis Resort, located just 90 miles east of Minneapolis, Minnesota (MN) in Eau Claire Wisconsin offers extreme family fun for all ages. Metropolis is the only venue in the Midwest featuring a Trampoline Park, Ninja Warrior Courses, Indoor Water Park and Fun Center with indoor and outdoor go-karts, Laser Tag and so much more. Their indoor Chaos Water Park includes 2 waterslides, lazy river, activity pool, double hot tub, seasonal outdoor area and a newly added aquatic playground.
Challenge
As the indoor water park was growing in number of attractions, so was the number of daily bathers. With two Nemato-Atlas filters operating at full capacity, one dedicated to the 96,000-gallon lazy river and the other dedicated to the 65,000-gallon activity and waiting pool, the water park was in need of an upgrade. With a planned renovation of the utility room, Chaos Water Park turned to the aquatic specialists at Evoqua to understand how they can improve water quality, while reducing operating costs and water consumption.
" I’ve worked for many aquatic centers, and often you will hear kids excited to enter an indoor water park saying that it smells like a pool. With the help of the team at Evoqua we just hear how the kids are excited to have fun. An indoor pool shouldn’t smell like an indoor pool. "
Solution
With bather safety, water quality and sustainability concerns being top of mind, Evoqua recommended the installation of two Defender® regenerative media filters to replace the two Nemato-Atlas filters to filter the combined 161,000 gallons of water.
Results
The savings in monthly operating costs quickly became a significant part of the water treatment upgrade project. The Nemato-Atlas filters required two employees to operate and maintain the system, while also requiring the water park to stock various replacement parts. The stocking of replacement parts was due to drastically extended lead times in getting access to such parts. In contrast, because components for the Defender filters are currently made in the US, there would be less or no need to stock spare parts.. The regenerative media technology only required one employee to operate and maintain the system, reducing operating costs to a fraction of what they once were. “The Defender system is just simplified and straight forward to use, not only does it take less employees to operate but it also takes less time. Operating the unit is just a breeze!,” says Billy Bandli, Director of Overall Fun.
When upgrading a utility room with new equipment, the footprint is often the first of many challenges to overcome. The Defender regenerative media filtration technology is always up to the challenge, in this project freeing up to 25% of the utility room's footprint. Doing so enabled the installation of additional systems to support upcoming expansion projects. Not only do the systems require less of a footprint but they also require much less water, eliminating the need for a routine backwash cycle.
Prior to the installation of the new Defender systems the park also had an Evoqua ultraviolet (UV) system to help in improving water safety and protect bathers against chlorine tolerant pathogens like Cryptosporidium. “Crypto” is responsible for 75% of the Recreational Water Illnesses (RWIs) reported to the CDC. Regenerative media technology helps improve UV in breaking down DNA of organisms that cause Crypto.
