While some pond owners may view evaporation as the enemy, there are many applications where it’s the main goal.

Several products are designed specifically for evaporation, but our fountains can actually be a more effective, reliable and cost-efficient solution. And, they’ll likely provide an added level of water quality enhancement.

Reasons to Evaporate

Applications like municipal waste water treatment, leachate, agriculture waste and mine tailings can all have holding ponds that do not allow for any discharge (or runoff). With continual inflow of water and no discharge, the only option is to evaporate. The tricky part with evaporation; however, is that it’s highly variable from day to day and region to region, making predicting exact results nearly impossible. However, there are some ways to tilt the odds in your favor.

The main components of evaporation are:

• Temperature
• Humidity Levels
• Wind
• Elevation (pressure)
• Surface Area

Since all of the above but elevation and surface area can change multiple times a day, it’s difficult to predict evaporation rates. However, the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has pan evaporation rate tests for many areas throughout each state. These are tests you can perform to basically measure the inches of evaporation at a given location, each month and the full year, and factor in the above variables at that location.

Methods of Evaporation

When it comes to increasing evaporation rates, the easiest, most cost-effective way is to increase the surface area of water in contact with the air. There are many types of equipment specifically designed for evaporation, most of which create a very thin mist of water to gain high evaporation rates (sometimes up to 70%). There are some disadvantages to these systems, however, including costs, clogging issues, warranty lengths and operating costs.

How Kasco Can Help

Our aerating and decorative fountains can be a great alternative to the expensive, non-reliable “misting-style” systems. Although Kasco fountains will not achieve the 70% evaporation rates some “misters” can achieve, the flow rates are exponentially higher. This means that our evaporation rate of 2-3% may equate to more gallons evaporated per HP than the other systems. Couple that with lower costs, less clogging, less maintenance, better electrical efficiency, and perhaps the biggest benefit, improved water quality at the same time, our fountains are a very attractive alternative.

We typically recommend our VFX Fountains as they provide the best mix of flow and surface area expansion, as well as aeration for water quality enhancement. We’ve even experienced installations where the J Series Fountains provide better evaporation rates, like in a mobile home park I recently visited near Sacramento.

Real World Application

Castle City Mobile Home park located in Newcastle, CA. Their on-site sewage treatment consisted of two large evaporation ponds. They are not allowed to discharge any water from the site or are at risk of fines up to $10,000 per gallon! The need and motivation for evaporation were extremely high, as they experience a constant inflow and occasional flooding. Management installed a 5HP VFX fountain in the fall of 2018, but unfortunately were not seeing the results they hoped.

We converted the units to our J Series Fountain with a geyser pattern and the results quickly improved. Not only are they able to keep up with rain and inflow, they have also noticed a huge reduction in algae growth as well as foaming and odor issues. The new J Series Fountain provided a solution to the main issue of evaporating the excess water as well as a secondary benefit of cleaner, nicer looking water. The quality has improved so much they are able to consider using the gray water for irrigation, which in turn will allow them to expand their park and still meet the zero discharge water requirements.

While it can be difficult to predict exact evaporation results, and can sometimes require trial and error, Kasco will provide an efficient, cost-effective solution. Using field data combined with NOAA pan rates, let us help you with your evaporation and water quality needs.

To get a proposal or to learn more, email us at support@kascomarine.com or call 715-262-4488.