04 INDUSTRY FOCUS
There’s no question today about the need for environmental stewardship. We’ve developed an innovative system that makes it possible.
Our focus is specifically in areas that will benefit the environment and improve industry.
ABANDONED & OPERATIONAL MINES
Thousands of operational and abandoned mines across the US are discharging polluted, untreated water at an alarming rate. Arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals flow into streams and ponds every day, poisoning fish and endangering wildlife—a legacy of the lenient rules the U.S. mining industry operated under for more than a century.
Until now, the leading method for cleaning AMD (acidic mine discharge) has involved building an expensive, permanent structure, dedicating a large amount of land to the leeching process, paying labor costs, introducing chemicals into the water to trap some of the particulates, and employing dilution to get particulate readings down to EPA-approved levels.
The Auric System is a far more effective solution for purging water of AMD as well as many other organic and inorganic pollutants. And, thanks to the system’s flexibility and smaller footprint, it costs less too.
AGRICULTURE
In the US, agriculture is the leading source of pollution in rivers and streams. Every time it rains, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, animal waste, drug residues, and pathogens flow into nearby waterways. The accumulation of excess nutrients, such as nitrates and phosphates, can stimulate the out-of-control growth of algae in ponds and lakes, which has an impact on biodiversity and fisheries.
Cleaning up water polluted by agricultural waste can take time, but it can be done. The Auric System is equipped to remove all the types of contaminants listed above, and more.
OIL & GAS
The primary water pollution concern for oil & gas extraction/production focuses on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. A fracking operation typically pumps hundreds of thousands of gallons of frack fluid—water mixed with sand and chemical compounds—into the ground to break apart shale formations and free the gas trapped within. In the process, the fluid picks up naturally occurring heavy metals and radioactive elements from the shale before it is brought back up to the surface. Typically, the wastewater is then trucked away to a recycling facility, cleaned, and brought back for reuse.
Auric has a better way. Not only does our system clean the water more thoroughly than other approaches, it can also be installed on site and the cleaned water re-routed back for reuse. This eliminates the trucking component, cuts down on fossil fuel emissions, and saves significantly on transportation costs. And Auric will recycle the mineral and chemical components isolated in the separation process.
MANUFACTURING
Every manufacturing process that involves water will have its own combination of polluting chemicals, but some of the most common pollutants are asbestos, alkalis, dyes, sulfur, polychlorinated biphenyl, lead, mercury, benzene, volatile organic chemicals, and microplastics (micro-waste from fiber shedding).
If you want to do a better job cleaning the water your company uses, rather than dumping polluted water into the municipal system or directly into a waterway, contact Auric for a site evaluation.