In January 2023, WaterFleet submitted The Water Rig for “challenge testing” at the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) in Ann Arbor, MI. You’ve likely heard of NSF, they are the independent accreditation organization for nearly every item that is associated with food, including water.
The Challenge: Can The Water Rig treat contaminated water to disinfection levels that meet or exceed those established from boiling water?
The purpose of the challenge test was to document The Water Rig’s capabilities against real-world microbial contaminants–viral, bacterial, and protozoan–at an independent, world-class testing & certification laboratory. For background, regulatory agencies generally require at least a 2 to 4-log reduction for potability, that is between 99% and 99.99% of accute surface water contaminants removed. As an emergency measure, these agencies consistently recommend boiling water to restore potability when public water systems are unable to treat water satisfactorily. If boiled correctly, this method can achieve a 6-log reduction, representing a 99.9999% inactivation of contaminants.
During the 3-day challenge at the NSF testing facility, The Water Rig was tested with and without all of its processes in place in order to ensure safety in a variety of circumstances. In all cases, The Water Rig either met or exceeded the boiled-water standard on every test! To establish redundancies for real world conditions, The Water Rig’s results were even achieved without the use of chlorine for disinfection. When chlorine is used, which is a mandatory practice for WaterFleet, the system would have qualified for an additional 3-log removal credit for E. Coli and virus, increasing the log reduction well beyond boiling water. Importantly, the log reduction calculation is dependent on the total count entering the system. Therefore, had NSF had the capability to load even higher contaminant levels into the source water, The Water Rig would have achieved even higher log reductions. In simple terms, The Water Rig’s capabilities exceed what could be tested by an OSHA, ANSI, and ISO 17025 accredited, internationally renowned testing laboratory.
Our confidence as an industry leader is grounded in our Core Values and supported by almost 10 years of serving thousands of workers across the US by providing millions of gallons of treated water for drinking and other human needs. Our confidence is now supported by indisputable, quantifiable evidence that should allow us to bring The Water Rig to new places & peoples, and to confront new challenges in a very bright future. Better than boiling water? The evidence speaks for itself!