19 New Alternative Water Supply Projects In South Florida

In Florida, the South Florida Water Management District, which manages the state's water resources, provides Grants to cities and private entities for development and use of alternative water sources for irrigation or potable water that otherwise might not be usable. The Floridan Aquifer, a highly brackish water supply located beneath most of Florida can now be utilized using Reverse Osmosis.It has just been announced that the SFWMD has approved providing $3.45 million for 19 projects across the region. These projects combined will provide an additional 6.5 million gallons per day of water supply capacity. The projects are intended to help the environment and the economy, said Terrie Bates assistant deputy executive director for regulatory and public affairs at the district. She also said "the investment in alternative water supply projects is an investment in Florida's' future".The money will be spread throughout the district. In Boca Raton, $175,000 will be used for a 16-inch reclaimed water distribution ssystem expansion along Airport Road. Davie, in Broward County, will receive $200,000 to help fund a 6 million gallon per day reverse osmosis water treatment plant. Alternative water projects help to reduce dependence on traditional freshwater resources and diversify South Florida's water supply.

RO Zero Liquid Discharge at Texas Golf Club  

Water Treatment Systems, Inc has begun the first phase of manufacture for a 1,000,000 GPD reverse osmosis based water treatment plant that will feature (nearly) "Zero Liquid Discharge" of the waste water concentrate from the RO systems. RO concentrate water that is to be discharged to a sewer system has been reduced to only approximately 28,000 GPD. That is a design recovery of greater than 97%.

This is a very important development for the RO and also for the Golf industries.In many parts of the country, and indeed worldwide, golf course managers struggle with the problems of availability, cost or quality of water for irrigation of their golf course. "Reverse Osmosis has solved the problem of utilizing brackish ground water and many Golf Clubs have planned to purchase and install their own RO water treatment plants only to run directly into a very major obstacle. The problem is finding a suitable location to send the RO concentrate water and obtaining the necessary permits. RO concentrate water is considered 'industrial waste' by the DER and EPA." The lower the amount of RO concentrate, the smaller the problem is.

Reverse Osmosis systems are currently desalinating brackish or sea water at dozens of gold course facilities in the USA and world-wide. The product water from RO systems is very good "irrigation" quality. These facilities discharge their concentrate water, usually about 25% of the feed water, to an appropriate and permittable location. For a one million gallon per day RO system, this can be 250,000 gallons per day. A great many golf course facilities that need to treat their available water do not have an approved location to discharge it to.

The original design for the Texas Golf Course called for total liquid discharge with the use of evaporators as the final treatment phase. Evaporators are expensive both in capital and operating cost. But our client was fortunate to obtain permitting for approximately 5% of the concentrate thus eliminating the evaporation phase which saved about a million dollars". The WTS (nearly) zero liquid discharge design using membrane systems is a low cost opportunity for golf clubs everywhere.

Water Recovery RO Systems Provide Environmental Sustainability  

Once thought of as only contaminant removal systems, Reverse Osmosis systems are helping industry save water that would otherwise be sent to the sewer drain. For the beverage bottling industry, RO "Re-Use" systems provide sustainable, reliable cost-effective solutions to meet the industries stringent water specifications. Much of a process plants "waste" water ends up going to municipal sewer systems. Most municipal systems mandate effluent content limitations on Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Total Suspended Solids (TOD) and Acidity (pH) as well as total volume. Should the effluent exceed establish limits, and they often do, penalties in the form of surcharges are imposed. With so much water going down the drain it makes sense for bottling plants to reduce their reject water with Reverse Osmosis based "Re-Use" systems. It is another way that plants can save money while reducing their impact on the environment. Case study: Water Treatment Systems.us, has supplied a low-cost, membrane process system for Shasta Corporation's Miami Bottling plant for the purpose of recovering thousands of gallons of process water that would otherwise be discharged to the city sewer system. The Miami Bottling facility had been exceeding its permittable discharge limits and, as a result, been paying thousands of dollars in fees to the Miami-Dade Sewer Authority. The WMG, Inc. "Reuse" system was designed to recover approximately 75% of previously treated water used for bottling soft drinks and bottled water products. For this facility, the cost of the equipment will be repaid in less than a year due to the cash savings that would have otherwise been spent on discharge fees. Additional savings come from the reuse of the product water from the WMG "Reuse" system. The water quality produced by the WTS system is so good that it is reused in the facility in several ways resulting in additional savings for Shasta. The water quality from the "Reuse" system is so good that the recovered water can be reused for process water and/or plant utilities. Beverage bottling companies, with similar circumstances, no longer need to discharge huge amounts of "good" quality water to city sewer and pay thousands of dollars in fees.