San Antonio, along with many parts of Texas is experiencing double digit growth rates every 10 years. San Antonio Water System (SAWS) must be able to provide adequate water supplies in order to meet this growth. SAWS, currently, gets the majority of their drinking water from the Edwards Aquifer, but water levels are decreasing, resulting in limitations on water withdrawals imposed by regulatory agencies. This reality has resulted in SAWS looking for ways to diversify their water sources, including brackish groundwater located in the Lower Wilcox Aquifer. To meet their water supply needs, SAWS is developing a proposed Brackish Groundwater Desalination (BGD) Program consisting of a reverse osmosis (RO) treatment facility that is currently undergoing startup and scheduled fully operational and in service by October 2016. At its proposed buildout capacity of 30 MGD the SAWS BGD project will be the largest municipal RO treatment facility in the State of Texas and one of the largest in-land potable desalination facilities in the United States. The constructed treatment process will make use of several innovations in in-land desalination, including a unique high recovery RO configuration and the use of calcite contactors for remineralization. This presentation will review the startup and commencement phase of the project, including lessons learned that will benefit water utilities and operators that currently utilize or plan to implement brackish RO systems.
This presentation is available to AMTA Members only.
Speaker
- Jarrett Kinslow, PE / Esther Harrah, PE / Jill Manning Hudkins, PE / David Timmermann, PE
Company
- Tetra Tech, Inc. / San Antonio Water System / Black & Veatch Corporation
Event
- AMTA/AWWA Membrane Technology Conference, Long Beach, CA
Session
- AMTA/AWWA Membrane Technology Conference
Date
- 02/14/17
Media
Keywords
- Membrane, Concentrate, Desalination, Alternative Delivery, Reverse Osmosis, Remineralization
Reference
- 9676-DP1979