Micromanagement Inc.

An environmental services firm specialized in remedial & supplemental disinfection of potable water to prevent Legionnaires Disease and other plumbing-associated infections.

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Remedial Disinfection

Buildings contaminated with Legionella bacteria require remediation, which simply means that the situation needs to be “fixed”. Since Legionella bacteria are susceptible to a number of chemical treatments this would seem to be straightforward – but it’s actually not for several reasons:

  1. In order to kill the bacteria, chemicals must reach the bacteria. Many complex piping systems have balance (unequal flow) issues, dead-legs, blockages, and other problems which prevent chemicals from reaching ever location within the piping network.
  2. Chemical concentrations need to be minimized careful controlled in order to avoid damage to piping and related equipment.
  3. Some chemicals can react with organics in potable water to form undesirable and even carcinogenic side products.

Micromanagement specializes in building water systems and works with the building (and their plumbing contractor) to identify and sort out plumbing issues. This greatly enhances subsequent disinfection efforts. Because we use a proprietary blend of chemicals, our treatment can be performed at lower levels and over a shorter duration than other chemical treatments. We do not use chemicals known to form carcinogenic compounds.

On Going Disinfection

One might think that remediation is a “one and done” type effort. In fact, that’s only the beginning of what will likely be a long-term program. The reason for this is that Legionella bacteria are very common and prevalent (in very small quantities) even in many public water supplies. Once these bacteria make it into a building water system, the building itself acts as an incubator, with the bacteria finding a cozy spot to live and grow inside your plumbing system. Typically, the bacteria will harbor in areas of low or no flow, areas which are warm or even hot, and areas in which silt or other debris may have built up. So, given that your building has had a build-up of Legionella once, what would prevent this from happening again? In theory, you could modify your plumbing system so that it’s “perfect”, with none of the issues that encourage Legionella growth; while this sounds good, we’ve never seen it done. Because of that, we offer and recommend ongoing disinfection of your water system.

Ongoing (or supplemental) disinfection involves the continuous addition of chlorine to a building water system, just like the chlorine added by your municipal water supplier. (By the time municipal water has reached your building, the original levels of chlorine added have been mostly depleted and they are completely gone once the water reaches your water heaters). Chlorine levels must be controlled and monitored carefully, and there is significant routine maintenance required in order to have these systems perform optimally. MMi has installed and operated these systems in many different types of buildings over the years, and has the ability to customize system design to be effective and safe for each installation.

Safety

Client safety is the single most important consideration in all of our system designs. Careful sizing of pumps and other equipment, very high quality chemical-resistant equipment, spill containment vessels, fail-safe controls, and careful technician training all contribute to the safety of our systems.

Remote Monitoring

Because disinfection equipment is quite complex, regular monitoring is essential to ensure proper operation. In the event it becomes necessary to alter settings or to shut the system down, it is also essential that this can be done remotely. MMi has designed remote management capability that allows for all of this as well as data storage and retrieval, all within a very secure VPN which keeps client data safe. Our technicians are alerted to unusual conditions 24 x 7 and can adjust any of our systems at any time, from anywhere in the world, via their mobile phones or PC’s.

Charting and Monitoring