Challenge

California Water Service Company had recently acquired another water company who was responsible for this community drinking water system. The community has approximately 100 connections and is located in a remote agricultural section of the Central Valley. Annual well testing had shown levels of Nitrate at or near the Maximum Contamination Level (MCL) of 45 ppm NO3, also perchlorate was found in the groundwater at levels above the PublicHealth Goal (PHG) at 10 ppb.

Solution

Siemens Water Technologies provided a unique treatment system where the water is first treated for removal of perchlorate using single use ion exchange resin and then nitrate removal with a traditional regenerable ion exchange media. However, since the water purveyor could not handle on site waste streams the nitrate removal resin is regenerated off site.  The resin is sluiced in and out of the fixed tanks using a closed process that ensures the cleanliness of the media and complies with State Health Department sanitization requirements for ion exchange resins.

Results

The service-based solution significantly reduces the amount of manpower that the water company needs to maintain for site operation.

The nitrate treatment system uses off-site regeneration at a Siemens Water Technologies facility that reduces overall operating costs for treatment of the nitrate and eliminates generation of any liquid or solid waste stream at the site.

The financial arrangement for this project allowed the water company to plan their costs over a 10 year period versus the capital investment necessary to install a new treatment system.

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