Four advanced water treatment and desalination projects in California and Texas have been awarded funding by the US Bureau of Reclamation.
The US$ 2.09 million payout is intended to accelerate the adoption and use of innovative advanced water treatment technologies that increase usable water supplies.
The pilot and demonstration projects selected address the technical, economic and environmental issues of treating and using brackish groundwater, seawater, impaired waters or otherwise creating new water supplies within a specific locale.
The four projects selected are:
Los Angeles Department of Public Works – US$ 499,232 to treat arsenic-laden waters to meet drinking water standards. The full-scale project could potentially produce 36,000 acre- feet of treated water annually, or about 98% of the projected water imbalance in the immediate area.
City of Glendale in California – US$ 400,000 to evaluate two treatment technologies to remove hexavalent chromium from the local impaired groundwater source in the cities of Glendale and Los Angeles. Glendale is the location for next year’s joint conference of the American Membrane Technology Association and the American Water Works Association.
Los Angeles Department of Water & Power – US$ 598,000 to test the ability of a biological treatment process to remove nitrates, perchlorate and volatile organic compounds from the groundwater in the area. The full-scale project will provide 77,438 acre-feet (95 million m³) of treated water annually; reducing the city’s need for imported water from the California State Water Project.
Loving County in west Texas will receive US$ 600,000 to study treating brackish groundwater with wind-powered vapor-compression desalination technology. The funding will be used to examine the ability of this technology to provide a local, sustainable water source.
