Padre Dam Municipal Water District’s board of directors approved a $1,547,000 contract to Integrated Water Services to construct a new Advanced Water Purification Demonstration Project on Sept. 3, 2014. The contract, funded through a $3 million state grant, includes the construction and installation of a pilot demonstration plant that will use advanced water purification (AWP) technologies to provide a potential new source of water that is safe, reliable, locally controlled, drought-proof and environmentally sound.
“Integrated Water Services Inc. specializes in water treatment infrastructure, has the experience to understand the multiple technologies needed for this very important project and demonstrated the best value to our district,” said Allen Carlisle, CEO and general manager of Padre Dam. “Living in California, drought is a real and regular condition. It is imperative that Padre Dam works to diversify our water supply and reduce our reliance on imported water.”
The Demonstration Project will take Padre Dam’s recycled water through four advanced water treatment steps—free chlorine disinfection, membrane filtration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet/advanced oxidation. The water produced will be tested daily to ensure it meets the public health objectives for the California Public Health Department and will not be used in the drinking water system.
The Demonstration Project will produce water for one year and will not impact water rates. Construction work will begin in the fall of 2014 and is scheduled to be completed by February 2015. At completion of construction the demonstration treatment facility operations will begin and run at least 12 months. During this time, the demonstration project will produce approximately 100,000 gal of AWT water per day for demonstration and testing purposes.
If the Padre Dam’s demonstration project is deemed successful and the AWP project moves forward, the water treatment process would continue with additional steps and be similar to the groundwater replenishment system in Orange County, Calif. After treatment, the water would be injected into the Santee, Calif., groundwater basin where it would be naturally filtered and then withdrawn and treated again prior to distribution as drinking water. The project would have the potential to distribute up to three million gallons of water per day or enough to serve approximately 5,500 households and businesses in the Padre Dam’s service area each year.
Source: Padre Dam Municipal Water District
