Wichita Falls Water Purification and Recycling Project Gets Underway Program Adds 5 Million Gallons a Day to Water Supplies An innovative recycling program, that will help deal with a severe drought, got underway this morning when the city began reusing millions of gallons of water at the River Road Waste Treatment plant that will meet Texas’ stringent drinking water standards. The clear, odor free water is being sent by a 12 mile pipeline to the Cypress Water Treatment Plant for additional processing and further purified using advanced membrane technologies to create ultra-clean tap water. “We are pleased to bring this project on line to help alleviate the results of the drought by meeting approximately one third of our community’s water needs,” said Darron Leiker, Wichita Falls City Manager. “Our residents and businesses have done their share by reducing water consumption by 45 percent and the additional five million gallons of purified water will make a big difference in our ability to meet the water needs of homeowners, schools, businesses and industries.” “The safety of this process has been carefully vetted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ),” said Russell Schreiber, Director of Public Works. “The water will undergo stringent testing on a continuous basis with some of the analysis in real-time to check the water every few seconds while other parameters are monitored hourly, daily and weekly. “Regulators reviewed thousands of pages of test results and visited the city’s water treatment plant prior to approving this new program.” “The city worked closely with the TCEQ to establish alarms and shutdown triggers at various locations and for specific safety parameters throughout the process,” said Daniel Nix, Utility Operations Manager. “The water goes through four separate processes before it is deemed pure and ready for industry, agriculture and home use. “The city’s water treatment plant includes a state-of-the art certified laboratory that already monitors water quality and high-tech computer systems with state certified operators to monitor the entire process.” The advanced treatment process being utilized in Wichita Falls basically replaces the environmental purification process that takes place every day in Texas and throughout the United States when a wastewater treatment plant’s treated discharge enters streams and water bodies. That water is then used by others downstream as a source of potable water after processing in a water treatment plant. “The water coming out of our wastewater treatment plant is actually cleaner than the lake water it will be mixed with,” said Nix. “The water is clear and odorless and comes very close to meeting state drinking water standards even before it goes through a four step treatment process and is then treated again when it is mixed with lake water.” “There is a growing international trend toward purifying and reusing water produced by wastewater treatment plants,” said Schreiber. Big Spring, Texas has a successful program similar to Wichita Falls, and the City of Brownwood has plans to produce 1.5 million gallons of recycled water. Overseas, Singapore began its NEWater program in 2003. These programs are not just about providing water to drink. This water resource is needed for everything from industrial production and cooling to fighting fires and providing water for bathing and other needs. “This project has been the result of a great deal of hard work by the city staff in cooperation with the TCEQ,” said Nix. “We will continue to report on its progress.”
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 13:30:53 +0000
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