Basin Water, Inc - Solutions

City of Pomona takes a forward-looking approach to leveraging local water resources

The City of Pomona Pomona, California www.ci.pomona.ca.us

Jim Taylor,
Water/Wastewater
Operations Manager,
City of Pomona

"BasinWater's proprietary nitrate removal system creates over 90% less brine waste than our current conventional treatment plant - a significant savings for the City of Pomona."

Click to view PDF

By Jim Taylor, Water/Wastewater Operations Manager,
City of Pomona

In southern Californa, water is a scarce commodity. Even the recent unusually heavy rains brought the region's reservoir levels to less than 70% of capacity.

Faced with the rising cost of imported water, progressive water agencies, such as the city of Pomona's Utility Services Department, are increasingly looking to their local groundwater resources as the most-reliable source of water for the communities they serve.

In 1992, the City of Pomona opened a facility that was, at the time, the world's largest nitrate-removal plant, based on ion exchange (IX) technology. Served by 12 wells from a centralized location, the treatment facility still produces 15 mgd (57 ML/d) of drinking water and is currently under design for a capacity and optimization upgrade.

Within the next decade, 10,000 people were added to the city's population, creating increasing water demands. With diminishing prospects for reasonably priced imported water to meet future growth, the city needed to act. The good news was that improved technology and private sector resources had combined to offer an affordable solution to the city's growing need for high-quality water.

The familiarity of the Pomona Utility Services Department's operations staff with IX treatment increased the comfort levels enough to consider the use of next-generation IX technology from Basin Water, Inc. The Pomona City Council approved an agreement with Basin Water to provide for the treatment of high-nitrate groundwater to drinking water standards. Basin Water's compact, wellhead-based treatment system was viewed as a way to bring remote wells into compliance, and help ensure a reliable, economical, local source of drinking water for Pomona, the fifth largest city in Los Angeles County.

Pictured, Back row, left to right - Adam Ly, WQ Program Administrator; Raul Garibay,Utilities Engineer; Jim Taylor Water/Wastewater Operations Manager. Front row,left to right - Tim Connor,Water Distribution Supervisor; Gary Matthews,Water Operations Crew Chief; Nick Capogni, Water Treatment Plant Supervisor

Background

The City of Pomona covers nearly 23 sq mi (60 km²) and serves a population of approximately 156,000 people. In addition to treating surface water supplies from the Mt. Baldy Watershed, the city's utility services department also draws water from three groundwater aquifers: the Chino Basin, the Six Basins, and the Spadra Basin. Pomona has 37 groundwater wells in operation, with three more planned to go online within the coming year.

Historically Pomona was a major citrus growing region until the 1930s, when it began a transition to residential housing and then to manufacturing related to technology and the defense industry. Over time, agricultural and industrial chemicals started to show up in local groundwater wells. These compounds included volatile organic compounds and inorganic chemicals, including nitrates, perchlorate, arsenic, and hexavalent chromium.

The City responded with a three-pronged approach. First, in 1966, the City implemented one of the state's first large-scale municipal recycled water systems, which still delivers more than 5 mgd (19 ML/d) of tertiary treated recycled water. This system includes three high-nitrate water wells, dedicated for industrial use that pump non-potable well water. Second, in 1992, after years of planning and design, the previously mentioned 15 mgd (57 ML/d) IX plant started operation. Third, in the late 1990s, the city pursued a comprehensive $44 million capital improvement program aimed at replacing aging infrastructure and maximizing the use of local water resources. The goal was to reduce the city's reliance on expensive imported water, provide a higher level of drought-proofing for the city's customers, and more fully utilize adjudicated groundwater rights.

Basin Water 1000 GPM Nitrate Removal System

Basin Water

Basin Water was brought in to eliminate nitrate contamination at Well 19, a heavily used, non-potable well, in the Spadra Basin. One major challenge was the remote location of the wellhead: It was too distant to economically construct a new pipeline to the centralized treatment facility. The city investigated various treatment alternatives and discovered that a new technology had been developed by Basin Water to answer this challenge. The compact Basin Water system treated groundwater right at the wellhead, so no new piping was required.

The modular design of the Basin Water ion exchange treatment system allowed for installation of the treatment modules in free-standing conventional buildings or in containerized boxes that could be delievered by flatbed trailer to the well site. This made the installation of the Basin Water system relatively easy and straightforward compared to a conventional treatment plant. The Basin Water system was permitted and fully operational for the treatment of nitrates at Well 19 a short time later. The effort successfully brought the well back into compliance for potable domestic uses, producing roughly 500,000 gpd (1.9 ML/d) of drinking water.

The success was to be short-lived. Despite decades of water quality data showing nitrates as the only constituent of concern, six weeks after the Well 19 facility started treating water, a problem developed. A plume of volatile organic compounds had migrated to the well, the very first sign of volatile organic compounds in the Spadra Basin. The utility services department promptly returned Well 19 to industrial use and considered its options.

The city faced the possibility of having a stranded investment, and other alternatives were both costly and time consuming. The development of another well in the city would cost more than $1 million and take many months to budget , plan, permit, and construct. The ability to find "sweet" well water without some contaminant requiring removal would be unlikely. Imported water for Pomona was costing the city $467/acre-ft ($0.38/m³). Given these constraints and so as not to lose the investment, the best alternative was to use the system to treat water at another impaired water well.

Fortunately, the Basin Water system was transportable. If a conventional IX facility had been constructed, the city's investment would have been lost . Instead, the entire Basin Water treatment system was loaded onto a flatbed truck and moved nearly 10 mi (161 km) to Well 29, which was limited to operating only occasionally because of "yo-yoing" levels of nitrates. The California Department of Health Services (CDHS) had accepted the monitoring and control of the well by an onsite nitrate analyzer wired to shut down the well at 36 mg/L as NO₃, a limit that includes an appropriate margin of safety for Pomona customers. Well 29 draws water from the Chino Groundwater Aquifer, which is one of the largest groundwater basins in Southern , and provides drinking water to more than one million people in the Greater Inland Empire stretching from Pomona in the west to Fontana in the east. The Chino Basin encompasses a total area of about 235 mi (378 km), the western portion of which overlies the city's service area. The basin stores about 5 mil acre-ft (6.2 x 106 m_) of water and is the largest groundwater basin in the Upper Santa Ana River Watershed. Prior to the move, Basin Water technicians upgraded various components to further enhance the system's performance and efficiency.

The Nitrate Problem is Solvable

The city was granted an amended operating permit by the CDHS to operate the Basin Water IX system. The treatment system was tested, operating settings were fine-tuned, shutdown alarms were confirmed, and lab analyses verified that all water quality parameters were in compliance. The Basin Water IX treatment system at Well 29 is presently producing more than 0.5 mgd (1.9 ML/d) of safe, locally sourced drinking water for Pomona residents. All operating conditions are supervisory control and data acquisition-monitored by city staff, and water treatment plant operators spend less than one hour a day checking, testing and recording the plant's operations. It has been running, according to Utility Services engineer, Raul Garibay, "flawlessly". Garibay also noted that the Pomona water treatment operators were involved with the development of the operations manual, which gave them "buy in" on the project and eased concerns about the ability of the equipment to maintain a high degree of performance and reliability.

The new Basin Water technology offers other benefits over the older IX systems. For example, one of the major operating expenses with the centralized treatment facility has been for residuals management. The Basin Water treatment system creates over 90% less brine waste than the older technology at the centralized plant.

The key to Basin Water's superior system is it's patented multibed technology. Although conventional IX uses three large beds, two in adsorption and one in regeneration, the Basin Water systems uses up to 16 small beds. The multiple-bed design substantially reduces waste and provides a much more consistent effluent water quality. This design also offers the ability to take beds out of operation for maintenance without having to shut down the entire system.

Additionally, under the contract with Basin Water, city personnel are no longer involved in pumping, handling or disposing of brine waste. Brine use is optimized to achieve maximum efficiency, thereby reducing salt requirements and greatly lowering the volume of brine waste, allowing for off-site disposal under a contract with a waste hauling company.

Automated features are abundant to reduce staff time. Alarms and "shut-downs" are fully automated, and even some troubleshooting and repair can be managed remotely. This dramatically reduces staff visits. Plant operators spend less than an hour a day operating the treatment system.

Like Pomona, other water agencies can enjoy the advantages of cost and operating efficiency associated with Basin Water's technology. Reduced brine waste-disposal costs, lower salt usage and reduced staffing costs over conventional IX plants make this next-generation, modular ion exchange treatment technology a good option for water purveyors wanting to leverage their local water resources and keep costs low.

Ongoing cost savings

The cost savings for the city of Pomona - and its residents - is tremendous: more than $150/acre-ft ($0.12/m³) in savings compared to importing water. Pomona is not only saving money, but also helping to keep water rates down while maintaining customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

The water supply in Southern California has been under threat by tightening environmental requirements, drought in the Upper Colorado Basin, and the growth of cities. Cities and water agencies have a choice to make, and this choice can no longer be dictated by taking the path of least resistance, which has often meant doing nothing. In the past, the easiest decision was to shut off contaminated wells. A new paradigm now exists. Imported water can no longer be relied on, as in the past, to provide for high demand. Water agencies should consider the treatment options now available to provide their customers a safe and reliable supply of drinking water using local groundwater.

Choices made now will affect this generation and the ones to follow. Water industry professionals must ask themselves how they can make the best possible use of their resources. The city of Pomona has demonstrated a clear vision for the future, which is reflected in the choices it has made in water resource management.

"Our operators have been using IX technology to treat well water since 1992. One of the major operating expenses has been for residuals management. The Basin Water nitrate removal system creates over 90% less brine waste than our conventional IX treatment plant. This means a significant savings to the City of Pomona and will help to keep our water rates reasonable, which makes our customers happy!"

- Jim Taylor, Water/Wastewater Operations Manager


Solutions
Case Studies > Arizona Water > Avondale > Baldy Mesa > Cal Water > Coachella Valley > East Valley > Hi-Desert > Pomona > SoCal Water Browse Solutions > By Contaminant > By Region > By Customer City of Pomona takes a forward-looking approach to leveraging local water resources The City of Pomona Pomona, California www.ci.pomona.ca.us Jim Taylor, Water/Wastewater Operations Manager, City of Pomona "BasinWater's proprietary nitrate removal system creates over 90% less brine waste than our current conventional treatment plant - a significant savings for the City of Pomona." Click to view PDF Reprinted from Journal AWWA, Vol 97, No. 9 (September 2005) by permission. Copyright © 2005, American Water Works Association By Jim Taylor, Water/Wastewater Operations Manager, City of Pomona In southern Californa, water is a scarce commodity. Even the recent unusually heavy rains brought the region's reservoir levels to less than 70% of capacity. Faced with the rising cost of imported water, progressive water agencies, such as the city of Pomona's Utility Services Department, are increasingly looking to their local groundwater resources as the most-reliable source of water for the communities they serve. In 1992, the City of Pomona opened a facility that was, at the time, the world's largest nitrate-removal plant, based on ion exchange (IX) technology. Served by 12 wells from a centralized location, the treatment facility still produces 15 mgd (57 ML/d) of drinking water and is currently under design for a capacity and optimization upgrade. Within the next decade, 10,000 people were added to the city's population, creating increasing water demands. With diminishing prospects for reasonably priced imported water to meet future growth, the city needed to act. The good news was that improved technology and private sector resources had combined to offer an affordable solution to the city's growing need for high-quality water. The familiarity of the Pomona Utility Services Department's operations staff with IX treatment increased the comfort levels enough to consider the use of next-generation IX technology from Basin Water, Inc. The Pomona City Council approved an agreement with Basin Water to provide for the treatment of high-nitrate groundwater to drinking water standards. Basin Water's compact, wellhead-based treatment system was viewed as a way to bring remote wells into compliance, and help ensure a reliable, economical, local source of drinking water for Pomona, the fifth largest city in Los Angeles County. Pictured, Back row, left to right - Adam Ly, WQ Program Administrator; Raul Garibay,Utilities Engineer; Jim Taylor Water/Wastewater Operations Manager. Front row,left to right - Tim Connor,Water Distribution Supervisor; Gary Matthews,Water Operations Crew Chief; Nick Capogni, Water Treatment Plant Supervisor Background The City of Pomona covers nearly 23 sq mi (60 km²) and serves a population of approximately 156,000 people. In addition to treating surface water supplies from the Mt. Baldy Watershed, the city's utility services department also draws water from three groundwater aquifers: the Chino Basin, the Six Basins, and the Spadra Basin. Pomona has 37 groundwater wells in operation, with three more planned to go online within the coming year. Historically Pomona was a major citrus growing region until the 1930s, when it began a transition to residential housing and then to manufacturing related to technology and the defense industry. Over time, agricultural and industrial chemicals started to show up in local groundwater wells. These compounds included volatile organic compounds and inorganic chemicals, including nitrates, perchlorate, arsenic, and hexavalent chromium. The City responded with a three-pronged approach. First, in 1966, the City implemented one of the state's first large-scale municipal recycled water systems, which still delivers more than 5 mgd (19 ML/d) of tertiary treated recycled water. This system includes three high-nitrate water wells, dedicated for industrial use that pump non-potable well water. Second, in 1992, after years of planning and design, the previously mentioned 15 mgd (57 ML/d) IX plant started operation. Third, in the late 1990s, the city pursued a comprehensive $44 million capital improvement program aimed at replacing aging infrastructure and maximizing the use of local water resources. The goal was to reduce the city's reliance on expensive imported water, provide a higher level of drought-proofing for the city's customers, and more fully utilize adjudicated groundwater rights. Basin Water 1000 GPM Nitrate Removal System Basin Water Basin Water was brought in to eliminate nitrate contamination at Well 19, a heavily used, non-potable well, in the Spadra Basin. One major challenge was the remote location of the wellhead: It was too distant to economically construct a new pipeline to the centralized treatment facility. The city investigated various treatment alternatives and discovered that a new technology had been developed by Basin Water to answer this challenge. The compact Basin Water system treated groundwater right at the wellhead, so no new piping was required. The modular design of the Basin Water ion exchange treatment system allowed for installation of the treatment modules in free-standing conventional buildings or in containerized boxes that could be delievered by flatbed trailer to the well site. This made the installation of the Basin Water system relatively easy and straightforward compared to a conventional treatment plant. The Basin Water system was permitted and fully operational for the treatment of nitrates at Well 19 a short time later. The effort successfully brought the well back into compliance for potable domestic uses, producing roughly 500,000 gpd (1.9 ML/d) of drinking water. The success was to be short-lived. Despite decades of water quality data showing nitrates as the only constituent of concern, six weeks after the Well 19 facility started treating water, a problem developed. A plume of volatile organic compounds had migrated to the well, the very first sign of volatile organic compounds in the Spadra Basin. The utility services department promptly returned Well 19 to industrial use and considered its options. The city faced the possibility of having a stranded investment, and other alternatives were both costly and time consuming. The development of another well in the city would cost more than $1 million and take many months to budget , plan, permit, and construct. The ability to find "sweet" well water without some contaminant requiring removal would be unlikely. Imported water for Pomona was costing the city $467/acre-ft ($0.38/m³). Given these constraints and so as not to lose the investment, the best alternative was to use the system to treat water at another impaired water well. Fortunately, the Basin Water system was transportable. If a conventional IX facility had been constructed, the city's investment would have been lost . Instead, the entire Basin Water treatment system was loaded onto a flatbed truck and moved nearly 10 mi (161 km) to Well 29, which was limited to operating only occasionally because of "yo-yoing" levels of nitrates. The California Department of Health Services (CDHS) had accepted the monitoring and control of the well by an onsite nitrate analyzer wired to shut down the well at 36 mg/L as NO₃, a limit that includes an appropriate margin of safety for Pomona customers. Well 29 draws water from the Chino Groundwater Aquifer, which is one of the largest groundwater basins in Southern , and provides drinking water to more than one million people in the Greater Inland Empire stretching from Pomona in the west to Fontana in the east. The Chino Basin encompasses a total area of about 235 mi (378 km), the western portion of which overlies the city's service area. The basin stores about 5 mil acre-ft (6.2 x 106 m_) of water and is the largest groundwater basin in the Upper Santa Ana River Watershed. Prior to the move, Basin Water technicians upgraded various components to further enhance the system's performance and efficiency. The Nitrate Problem is Solvable The city was granted an amended operating permit by the CDHS to operate the Basin Water IX system. The treatment system was tested, operating settings were fine-tuned, shutdown alarms were confirmed, and lab analyses verified that all water quality parameters were in compliance. The Basin Water IX treatment system at Well 29 is presently producing more than 0.5 mgd (1.9 ML/d) of safe, locally sourced drinking water for Pomona residents. All operating conditions are supervisory control and data acquisition-monitored by city staff, and water treatment plant operators spend less than one hour a day checking, testing and recording the plant's operations. It has been running, according to Utility Services engineer, Raul Garibay, "flawlessly". Garibay also noted that the Pomona water treatment operators were involved with the development of the operations manual, which gave them "buy in" on the project and eased concerns about the ability of the equipment to maintain a high degree of performance and reliability. The new Basin Water technology offers other benefits over the older IX systems. For example, one of the major operating expenses with the centralized treatment facility has been for residuals management. The Basin Water treatment system creates over 90% less brine waste than the older technology at the centralized plant. The key to Basin Water's superior system is it's patented multibed technology. Although conventional IX uses three large beds, two in adsorption and one in regeneration, the Basin Water systems uses up to 16 small beds. The multiple-bed design substantially reduces waste and provides a much more consistent effluent water quality. This design also offers the ability to take beds out of operation for maintenance without having to shut down the entire system. Additionally, under the contract with Basin Water, city personnel are no longer involved in pumping, handling or disposing of brine waste. Brine use is optimized to achieve maximum efficiency, thereby reducing salt requirements and greatly lowering the volume of brine waste, allowing for off-site disposal under a contract with a waste hauling company. Automated features are abundant to reduce staff time. Alarms and "shut-downs" are fully automated, and even some troubleshooting and repair can be managed remotely. This dramatically reduces staff visits. Plant operators spend less than an hour a day operating the treatment system. Like Pomona, other water agencies can enjoy the advantages of cost and operating efficiency associated with Basin Water's technology. Reduced brine waste-disposal costs, lower salt usage and reduced staffing costs over conventional IX plants make this next-generation, modular ion exchange treatment technology a good option for water purveyors wanting to leverage their local water resources and keep costs low. Ongoing cost savings The cost savings for the city of Pomona - and its residents - is tremendous: more than $150/acre-ft ($0.12/m³) in savings compared to importing water. Pomona is not only saving money, but also helping to keep water rates down while maintaining customer satisfaction. Conclusion The water supply in Southern California has been under threat by tightening environmental requirements, drought in the Upper Colorado Basin, and the growth of cities. Cities and water agencies have a choice to make, and this choice can no longer be dictated by taking the path of least resistance, which has often meant doing nothing. In the past, the easiest decision was to shut off contaminated wells. A new paradigm now exists. Imported water can no longer be relied on, as in the past, to provide for high demand. Water agencies should consider the treatment options now available to provide their customers a safe and reliable supply of drinking water using local groundwater. Choices made now will affect this generation and the ones to follow. Water industry professionals must ask themselves how they can make the best possible use of their resources. The city of Pomona has demonstrated a clear vision for the future, which is reflected in the choices it has made in water resource management. "Our operators have been using IX technology to treat well water since 1992. One of the major operating expenses has been for residuals management. The Basin Water nitrate removal system creates over 90% less brine waste than our conventional IX treatment plant. This means a significant savings to the City of Pomona and will help to keep our water rates reasonable, which makes our customers happy!" - Jim Taylor, Water/Wastewater Operations Manager Reprinted from Journal AWWA, Vol 97, No. 9 (September 2005) by permission. Copyright © 2005, American Water Works Association
Copyright © Basin Water Inc. 2005, All Rights Reserved Worldwide.