Challenge

The Cucamonga Valley Water District (CVWD) receives a significant portion of their water from the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District (MWD).  The MWD determined that there was an imminent chance of failure in the supply line to the city and notified the CVWD that they would need to shut off their supply for several weeks while repairs were made.  The city had a choice of either bringing nitrate contaminated wells back on line to make up for the short fall or impose severe water rationing on the community they supply.

Solution

The solution included placing two mobile demineralizer trailers on the well site using new NSF anion resin in chloride form in the ion exchange process.  A nitrate effluent level of below 5 ppm can be achieved via mobile demineralization.  The resin exchanges were performed on-site by swapping out trailers so the CVWD would not experience downtime due to resin regeneration.  Further, since they did not have a connection to a local brine line, the trailers were easily and quickly regenerated at a Los Angeles regeneration facility as trailers were exhausted.

Results

CVWD was able to avoid imposing severe water restrictions.  Within hours of start-up, an effluent level below 5 ppm was acheived.

Cucamonga Valley Water District Project Profile