Challenge

Jerry Loomis turns on the valve and watches reclaimed water shower over a plot of prize golden barrel cactus he’s growing at his Silverthorn Ranch nursery in Fallbrook, California.

The water comes from the Fallbrook Sanitary District where, in the past, effluent was discharged to the Pacific Ocean through an 18.5-mile pipeline. In 1989, the plant decided to expand its capacity and upgrade the wastewater treatment equipment.

Solution

The $8.5-million upgrade included everything from headworks to aeration system to secondary clarifiers. Tertiary filtration was added, and daily capacity increased to 2.7 million gallons. Key to the upgrade was a Hydro-Clear pulsed bed sand filter.

The Hydro-Clear system features:

• A unique compartmentalized underdrain that permits efficient pulsing of the filter bed to keep the media surface clear and prolong runs between backwashes
• A Chem-Clean® system that allows operators to automatically remove grease and oil from the filter bed
• Filtered effluent that meets state standards for turbidity (less than two NTUs) and is acceptable for unrestricted use except drinking water

The treated water from the Hydro-Clear filter is chlorinated and pumped to the reclaimed water users.

Results

The Fallbrook Sanitary District is reclaiming and recycling 80 percent of the flow. The water, which meets California’s rigorous Title 22 standards, is used by area nurseries and also by the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base for fire fighting and golf course irrigation. The California Department of Transportation uses the water for highway median irrigation and the high school uses it for watering its athletic fields. It is expected that all of the agricultural areas south of the treatment plant will use this reclaimed water.