OC pilot desalination pumping to restart in October

The pilot plant for the South Orange Coastal Ocean Desalination Project in California will resume discharging into the ocean in October 2011 following alterations to the discharge pipeline, which are about to go for bidding.

The pipeline must be lengthened by 100 m or so, due to repositioning of a lagoon-forming berm as a result of heavy storms. The extension will cost around US$ 100,000.

Karl Seckel, assistant general manager of Municipal Water District of Orange County, told D&WR that the research and pilot plant work is continuing and will be completed by July 2012, the original completion date for this work. With regard to the discovery of excess iron and manganese in the source water, Seckel says further hydrogeologic investigations out under the ocean will be undertaken when the project moves into its design phase.