A new technology evaluation is being conducted as part of San Diego’s ambitious multi-year program to provide nearly half of the city’s water supply locally by the end of 2035.
The Pure Water San Diego Program, one of the largest integrated infrastructure programs undertaken in the city, aims to transform the water system into a complete water cycle. Advanced water purification technology will clean recycled water and produce safe, high-quality drinking water.
Split into two phases, the program will eventually deliver 83 million gallons of water per day (MGD): phase 1 will see 30 MGD added by 2025, and Phase 2 will add 53 MGD by 2035.
Plans include diverting and recycling treated wastewater from the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant (PLWTP), which is currently discharged to the ocean.
A technology evaluation at the plant will test and confirm the technologies used in the full-scale design of the Phase 2 facilities. This includes water reclamation plant processes (preliminary to tertiary) and advanced water purification process trains.
Water technology company ROTEC, together with two other reverse osmosis (RO) technologies, was selected for evaluation. The four-stage demonstration system will use Flow Reversal technology to treat and reuse the wastewater to achieve up to a 95% recovery rate while minimizing specific energy and chemical use.
ROTEC will work in collaboration with the San Diego City engineering team and a selected large-scale construction company.
The evaluation follows a collaboration between ROTEC and engineering consultancy Brown & Caldwell to deliver the Flow Reversal technology to the City of Santa Monica’s Arcadia water treatment plant.
Bruce Alderman, CEO of ROTEC USA, said: “We applaud the City of San Diego’s Pure Water Program (PWP) and ambitions to create a more sustainable, secure and local water supply by 2035.
“We are excited to have another opportunity to show that Flow Reversal provides the best performance and lowest life cycle costs when compared with other high recovery reverse osmosis technologies.”
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