P.A.W.D. is a portable, self-contained treatment system that reduces nitrate contamination in groundwater to below EPA limits — and mechanically guarantees no untreated water is ever discharged.
The Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area (LUBGWMA) in northeastern Oregon has been under state designation since 1990 for nitrate contamination exceeding safe drinking water limits.
Sources include irrigated farmland (~70%), confined animal feeding operations (~13%), animal pastures (~8%), food processing wastewater (~5%), and residential septic systems (~5%).
Nitrate in drinking water causes methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome) in infants, and is associated with increased cancer risk at chronic exposure levels. Over 70% of Oregon residents depend at least partly on groundwater.
Oregon's 2025 Nitrate Reduction Plan — a collaboration between DEQ, ODA, OWRD, and OHA — acknowledges that cleanup under current source-control strategies will take decades. No active treatment technology has been deployed in the basin.
AnoxKaldnes K5 Micro biofilm carriers provide 800 m²/m³ protected surface area for denitrifying biofilm in a moving bed biofilm reactor. Proven in municipal and industrial wastewater applications worldwide.
Xylem IQ SensorNet 2020 3G controller with NitraVis 700 IQ spectrophotometric probe provides real-time, immersion-rated nitrate measurement. Process-control grade — not just monitoring.
Bray 30/31 series with spring-return actuator. NSF 61 certified for potable water contact. Default state: closed. Opens only on active sensor confirmation of qualification.
The system does not trust that treatment is complete. It verifies continuously and enforces mechanically. No software override exists for the fail-closed valve. On any failure condition — sensor fault, power loss, communication interruption, or above-threshold reading — the valve returns to its default closed state.
No untreated water leaves the system under any failure condition. This is a mechanical guarantee, not a software one.
Optimized for maximum throughput where discharge temperature is not regulated. Industrial reuse, blowdown pond cleanup, cooling tower cycles-of-concentration mitigation, agricultural reuse.
Designed for strict thermal compliance at sensitive waterways. Integrated chiller loop and variable batch logic maintain discharge below regulatory temperature limits.
Biological denitrification is temperature-dependent, following Arrhenius kinetics. Reaction rates at 5°C are roughly one-ninth of rates at 35°C. In cold climates, standalone PAWD units would be seasonal — effective in summer, marginal in winter.
The EMERALD NEXUS platform solves this by coupling PAWD reactors to industrial waste heat sources — primarily data centers, which generate enormous thermal loads they currently pay to reject through evaporative cooling.
This creates a symbiotic relationship: the data center gets supplemental cooling capacity and nitrate remediation for its water systems, while PAWD gets year-round thermal energy that maintains optimal treatment velocity regardless of ambient conditions.
The Columbia Basin — where LUBGWMA is located — hosts major data center operations from multiple hyperscale operators. The waste heat from a single facility can thermally drive dozens of PAWD units.
Patent pending. Provisional applications cover thermal conditioning subsystem, energy recovery, and integrated deployment architecture.
One-page overview: problem, solution, IP status, deployment readiness, funding sought.
System architecture, zero-trust discharge protocol, component specifications, dual-variant deployment.
Thermal coupling architecture, data center integration, energy recovery, industrial symbiosis framework.
LUBGWMA crisis data, nitrate source analysis, regulatory landscape, site justification.
Inventor & Sole Founder
Goldendale, WA
Open to discussions with funding agencies, data center operators, municipal water authorities, agricultural cooperatives, and technology partners.