LOVES PARK, Ill. (WTVO) — Water Surplus, a Loves Park Company is sending aid to Louisiana to deal with the water crisis in the southern part of the Mississippi River.

In September, the Army Corps of Engineers reached out to the Loves Park company, who are experts helping these situations. At the scene are their Reverse Osmosis Filtration Machines.

“When they’re emergencies that come up, whether they’re cities or industrial companies, we’re one of the first companies that gets called to deploy equipment,” said Jim Ryan the Executive Vice President of Water Surplus. “So in this case, you know, there are several companies that we’re trying to help down in the Gulf area due to the saltwater intrusion into drinking water systems.”

A wedge of salt water from the Gulf of Mexico has entered the fresh Mississippi. This contaminated communities’ drinking water potentially affecting hundreds of thousands. Water Surplus machines treat 4 million gallons of fresh water every day.

“What has happened is due to the historically low levels of the Mississippi this year and last year, that saltwater has gone into the intakes of drinking water systems and contaminated those systems,” Ryan said.

Helping give fresh water in these circumstances is the company’s expertise. The solution to the issue, Ryan said, could be coming.

“They are trying to do permanent fixes in terms of freshwater pipelines. But we’re going to be ready when we get the call again if this is to occur because this is something that has happened before. And given the drought conditions that we’ve seen over the last few years is something that will probably happen again.”

Water Surplus has customers across North America. Not all situations involve saltwater contamination. A popular topic here in the Stateline has been PFAs, which they also help with.

They recently agreed to send their machines to help with a PFAs situation in Quebec, Canada. They are the first option as a solution ever in that area.

Still, their work with the Reverse Osmosis Filtration Machines is what got them a part of the team and on the Job.

“We do a lot of work with reverse osmosis systems in the beverage market,” Ryan said. “Those water treatment systems are the equipment of choice so that there’s ultrapure water. When beverage companies produce water for ingredients and drinking.”