The Future of Water PET...

[Left Seater]

A recent work trip found me flying folks to El Paso Texas for a water conference. I tagged along on a few of the tours since I had a few days to kill.

This is a new brackish water treatment plant that is supplying most of El Paso's current water needs. They are pulling the brackish water from 15 different wells around the greater ELP area and treating them at this facility. Much of the desert SW has large amounts of brackish water. Texas has about 10 times the amount of brackish water as it does fresh water. So reverse osmosis treatment of this water will be the drinking water of the future for most of Texas west of Interstate 35.

Here is a shot of the outside of the treatment plant. This bldg also houses a water education wing and meeting rooms.





Here is a cross section of one of the RO filters. The water is forced in around the outside and filters thru to the middle tube where it flows out. Only about 50% of the water goes all the way thru the filters. The remaining water collects the salts that were removed and that helps keep the filters clean.



Here is the filter as it would be installed in the unit.



This is the control panel which runs the entire system from the extraction wells thru the plant and back to the injection wells for the concentrate.


This is the chemist who is constantly testing the raw water, the treated water and the waste water.


This is the actual plant. The large black item is the pump that forces the raw water thru the RO filters. There are 5 banks in this plant and it has a max output of 30 Million gallons a day. Each bank can produce 6 MG/D. At the time we were there they were running only two of the 5 banks.


Here is a shot of the different stages of the water. On the left is the raw water and the salt found in that sample. In the center is the treated water ready to drink. Notice it does have some salt in it even though the RO removes all salt. This is because they actually blend it with a small amount of raw water because if there were no salts in the water it would eat thru most pipes. On the right is the concentrated salt water that is waste and is injected back into the ground or sold to oil and gas companies to use in fracking.


Here is a better shot of the plant where you can see the different banks. In this shot 4 of them are visable.



Once I get some of the photos off my phone I will share some of the waste water treatment plant, or as they guys that worked there called it, the turd herding plant.

[Dinsdale]

The remaining water collects the salts that were removed and that helps keep the filters clean.

Uhm, kindasorta, I guess. The pumps fill pressure tanks(usually), the filters are taken offline, and are backflushed, which is then the graywater.

This is the control panel which runs the entire system from the extraction wells thru the plant and back to the injection wells for the concentrate.

They really told you that? They must have been apathetic to the tourists.

This is the chemist who is constantly testing the raw water, the treated water and the waste water.

I like the way the low man on the totem at WTPs is referred to as a "chemist." Has a nice ring to it... when he's not cleaning out tanks or scrubbing the bathroom.

Notice it does have some salt in it even though the RO removes all salt. This is because they actually blend it with a small amount of raw water because if there were no salts in the water it would eat thru most pipes.

They use salt to buffer the pH? That makes reason #547,963 why I'm glad I don't live in Texas.

Once I get some of the photos off my phone I will share some of the waste water treatment plant, or as they guys that worked there called it, the turd herding plant.

When I've worked in them, we just call it a WWTP. Or a shithole, but that might be confusing in Texas.

[Mikey]

The remaining water collects the salts that were removed and that helps keep the filters clean.

Uhm, kindasorta, I guess. The pumps fill pressure tanks(usually), the filters are taken offline, and are backflushed, which is then the graywater.

Neither one of those is an accurate description of RO, which is a continuous process that uses pressure and a semi-permeable membrane to force a solvent (water) from a higher concentration solution to a lower concentration solution. This is the reverse of a natural osmotic flow. Water is a smaller molecule, so it gets pushed through the salt gets left behind. The RO filter is basically a large flat membrane, rolled up into a tube. Feed water comes in one end and the clean water is forced through the membrane. The clean water is just the feed water with part of the water removed. The rejected water is what's left behind.

Charcoal or other filters are used before and after to remove other stuff - like solids and VOCs (at least on my home system).

[Dinsdale]

The remaining water collects the salts that were removed and that helps keep the filters clean.

Uhm, kindasorta, I guess. The pumps fill pressure tanks(usually), the filters are taken offline, and are backflushed, which is then the graywater.

That's not how RO works.

Yes and no. The raw water gets prefiltered before it hits the RO, which removes most of the suspended solids, and the filtered solids get backflushed, either by a charged pressure tank, or cranking the pump up in reverse.

But you knew that.

[Left Seater]

It's cool, we get it, you don't want to move here. That is good for us as we are trying to figure out what to do with all the SoCals anyway after yet another company is relocating.

As for the plant I am certainly no expert on water treatment and it is possible you are correct on all counts, the chemist did have a USC coffe cup though so that lends validity to your bathroom statement.

[Mikey]

But you knew that.

OK I'm slow.

[Wolfman]

Looks like an industrial size version of the de-mineralizers I had at the Edison State College for the science labs. I'd hate to see what water bills will be in Emerson,Lake, and Palmer ElPaso. They are high enough here and we have yet to go to desalination.

[Left Seater]

Wolfman, the rates haven't increased much over the last few years. Granted they are selling the brine (?) waste water for use in fracking so that helps offset the cost.

The power usage is pretty high though with desal, but the city is making investments in wind power which is big business in west Texas.

[Go Coogs']

Yes and no. The raw water gets prefiltered before it hits the RO, which removes most of the suspended solids, and the filtered solids get backflushed, either by a charged pressure tank, or cranking the pump up in reverse.

But you knew that.

This is true. Two major methods of turning raw water into clarified/DI water:

-Pulsator
-Sand Filters

After the raw water makes it way through the pulsator or sand filters it makes it way to some multimedia filters and another set of filters and then has chemical injection before it hits the membranes in the RO. Turbidity is a real issue down here in the winter months.

[Go Coogs']

Looks like an industrial size version of the de-mineralizers I had at the Edison State College for the science labs. I'd hate to see what water bills will be in Emerson,Lake, and Palmer ElPaso. They are high enough here and we have yet to go to desalination.

Water system has been neglected for years here in Texas. They recently took $2 billion from the rainy day fund to start a number of improvement projects in our dam systems, recovery, and conservation systems.

[Goober McTuber]

Hey! A Jack Sprat sighting!

[Left Seater]

Water system has been neglected for years here in Texas. They recently took $2 billion from the rainy day fund to start a number of improvement projects in our dam systems, recovery, and conservation systems.

Uhhhh, I guess you are close, somewhat to the mark.

In the last legislative session which ended in June of 2013 a bill was signed that allowed the residents to vote on creating a water fund. The residents voted to move forward with the fund in Nov.

This $2 Billion will be made available to cities, counties, and other local government projects at a very low intrest rate. These projects must be underway or will start within 6 months. This money that you claim comes from the rainy day fund is in fact additional money that would go to the rainy day fund, except the fund has reached its max and this money would have "spilled" over into the general fund. Look for the Legislature to raise the cap on the rainy day fund next year.

The water infrastructure is in pretty good shape, but with the population explosion and new limits on subsurface water due to subsidence, we are facing a shortage soon. Only one new lake has been built in the last 40 years, but that is mainly due to EPA and others requiring decades to approve projects.

Thankfully someone with more of a water focus has taken a leadership position at the EPA and has promised to help fast track new projects. The state water plan has 4 new lakes that are currently designed and ready to move to the permitting process. On top of that there are 23 brackish desal projects currently in the EPA permitting process.

[Go Coogs']

The water infrastructure is in pretty good shape, but with the population explosion and new limits on subsurface water due to subsidence, we are facing a shortage soon. Only one new lake has been built in the last 40 years, but that is mainly due to EPA and others requiring decades to approve projects.

This is sort of a contradiction, isn't it?

[Left Seater]

Yeah, good point. I should have said the physical hardware is in good shape. Many cities have long term capital improvement budgets and follow replacement schedules.

The source infrastructure is what is being strained with the current drought and slow rolling of new storage projects, combined with the population explosion.

[Rooster]

There are two things in this PET that will cause the lefty Eco-terrorists to froth at the mouth: The blatant jingoistic display of the imperialist American flag and the mention of fracking, a Koch brothers and Karl Rove inspired method of destroying the world for all the peace loving peasants south of the immoral Texas border.

[Mikey]

There are two things in this PET that will cause the lefty Eco-terrorists to froth at the mouth: The blatant jingoistic display of the imperialist American flag and the mention of fracking, a Koch brothers and Karl Rove inspired method of destroying the world for all the peace loving peasants south of the immoral Texas border.

I'm all for fracking.

As long as it's in Texas.