Stuart firm puts clean water on wheels

By KATE GRUSICH
December 9, 2005

STUART — Although the idea had been simmering for months, it took flight after a trip to a hurricane-battered Gulf Coast town.

Partially driven by first-responder experiences in Waveland, Miss., Stuart-based Brisben Water Technologies has signed a five-year agreement with Pierce Manufacturing to make, deliver and market the nation's first tactical water filtration truck.

"It was developed based on our experience bringing clean, potable water to Waveland," said Brisben Water president Mickey Donn. "In trying to get our filtration equipment in, we had to deal with fallen trees and flooded roads. We had been talking with Pierce about this for several months, but Katrina showed us how important it would be to put the two products together."

Pierce Manufacturing, based in Appleton, Wis., is a subsidiary of the Oshkosh Truck Corp. (NYSE: OSK) and is the leading North American manufacturer of custom fire apparatus and Homeland Security vehicles.

And Brisben Water's high-volume filtration system has been tested and approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for use in the case of a terrorist attack or natural disaster at home or abroad.

The two companies will work together to create a six-wheel-drive, off-road vehicle that can clean both bio-toxin polluted waters and highly contaminated seawater. The vehicle will be able to operate in and through four feet of water and up 60-degree slopes.

"The Tactical Water Filtration Truck will provide the critical water requirements needed for homeland security, military operations, bio-terrorism response and natural disaster relief domestically and worldwide," said Jim Parker, Pierce's vice president of government sales.

The vehicle will likely be marketed through Pierce's dealer network to military, federal, state, county and municipal agencies, as well as local fire and police and emergency service organizations, he said.

Brisben Water, which is a subsidiary of Stuart's UltraStrip Systems, plans to install a 20-foot filtration unit on the trucks — one that can clean up to 36,000 gallons of water per day, said Donn. A demonstration model will be built sometime in early 2006, he added.

The partnership is already being lauded by some of the industry's biggest names.

"Based on my experience and response to many disaster relief efforts, I am intimately familiar with the need to provide clean drinking water to people and states in need," ex-FEMA director Joe Allbaugh said in a prepared statement. "Brisben Water's innovative mobile water filtration technology combined with Pierce's truck design creates a unique and much needed solution to disaster relief."