All-natural, Sustainable Solution to Improve Water Quality
The Summer Palace in Beijing, China, is described as “a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.” It spans an area of 2.9 km2, and three quarters of that area is covered by water.
It takes a lot of labor to maintain this beautiful site. In some of their ornamental lakes, floating plants had to be cleared by
hand on a weekly basis. Summer Palace officials began looking for an all-natural, sustainable solution to improve water quality. They reached out to Guodian Futong Technology Group Co., a subsidiary of the NARI Group.
Together, they came up with a bioaugmentation program using BiOWiSH® Aqua. Within a few short weeks, the benefits were obvious.
Lower nutrient levels
Maintenance officials chose a small pond as a test case. They implemented a three-phase program using different dosages of BiOWiSH® Aqua.
One goal of the treatment was to reach and maintain water quality consistent with Environmental Quality Standard IV. Key nutrient levels were tested before and during the treatment program.
Before the addition of BiOWiSH®, water quality was not compliant with Standard IV. But within two weeks of treatment, nutrient measurements dropped down considerably. Total phosphorus and total nitrogen decreased, meeting Standard IV requirements. In fact, nitrate nitrogen was reduced by over 90%.
Reduced labor costs
High nutrient levels contributed to algae blooms and floating plant growth in the Palace’s ornamental
water features. As BiOWiSH® Aqua improved water conditions, the rate of plant growth dramatically decreased.
Another goal of this test case was to decrease the high labor costs associated with manual plant removal. Before the treatment program, floating plants had to be removed from the pond by hand every week. This was very time consuming.
After the BiOWiSH® treatment, Summer Palace officials were able to reduce labor costs by going five weeks without manual plant removal. Eventually, with consistent BiOWiSH®applications, they should be able to stop by-hand plant removal altogether. That means clearer water with less money spent on labor.
All this was achieved without the use of harsh chemicals.
The proprietary blend of microorganisms in BiOWiSH® Aqua provides an environmentally friendly, non-toxic way to improve water quality. Our easy-to-dose product was an ideal solution to water quality issues in the surface waters of the Summer Palace.
For more information about BiOWiSH® Aqua’s effectiveness at the Summer Palace, read the full case study here.