MixZon Inc has the unique capability to integrate outfall monitoring, water quality measurement and mixing zone modeling.

Mixing Zone Stream Survey / Outfall Inspection Equipment

With USEPA SBIR Phase II program support, MixZon Inc has developed an aerial remote sensing system for monitoring water quality at site scales. We have demonstrated the ability of our platform to obtain geo-referenced water quality data from point source mixing zones.

Our capabilities in aerial remote sensing combined with our state-of-the-art sonar for velocimetry and bathymetry surveys, allows us to perform CORMIX model validation and/or calibration for single port, multiport diffuser, and surface discharge sources.

* Project Summary (PDF Document)

* ISEH V Conference Paper (PDF Document)

Our tethered balloon aerial remote sensing platform measures outfall performance and focuses on temperature as a dilution tracer.

The temperature tracer can also be used as an indicator of other water quality parameters within the mixing zone such as BOD, coliforms, dissolved metals, etc.. We have verified an easily deployable remote sensing platform that gathers continuous, real-time, site scale, geo-referenced mixing zone data for NATIONAL POLLUTION DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES) regulatory compliance, Endangered Species Act (ESA) habitat assessment, and hydrodynamic mixing zone simulation model validation.

This geo-referenced image from our remote sensing platform shows a mixing zone of a municipal wastewater discharge which creates a large upstream (west) density current.

CORMIX modeling suggested an alternating diffuser while NPDES permit information indicated a unidirectional design.

Subsequent acoustic camera inspection of the outfall confirmed an alternating design as with an upstream density current modeled by CORMIX.

Field Survey Equipment:

Flexible deployment of our ADCP sonar by our 20-ft Jet Boat or towed raft collects data from large lakes and rivers to small streams. All field data is tagged with DGPS lat/long coordinates for analysis and presentation with ArcView GIS.

RDI/Teledyne Workhorse Rio Grande 1200Khz (ZedHed- Shallow Water) Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler

Trimble AG114 DGPS (Survey Grade)

Motion Marine 20-ft Jet Sled with ADCP and Acoustic Camera mount

Ocean Sciences Riverboat (shallow water/small channel towed raft ADCP deployment)

Mixing Zone Remote Sensing Platform:

20-ft Nylon Blimp with patent-pending remote sensing platform

Robotic Camera Mount with telemetry for real-time mixing zone imaging

Camera platform digital compass (bearing, tilt, roll), laser rangefinder, temp/humidity sensor

FLIR A20M Measure Infrared Camera and IQEYE 703 Megapixel camera

ZoneView® software (custom developed in-house) provides images tagged with GPS lat/long location, ambient air temperature and humidity, distance to target, platform heading, pitch, roll.

Outfall Condition Inspection:

MixZon Inc has successfully deployed the DIDSON acoustic camera to conduct outfall inspection. This technique can produce high quality video images in highly turbid environments.

Outfall inspection using this technique can be a cost effective option for infrastructure maintenance and NPDES permit compliance.

Contact us for details on outfall condition assessment using our advanced remote sensing techniques.