Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/107143
PROJECTS PROJECTPROGRESS MORE DETAIL ON THESE STORIES IS OFTEN AVAILABLE ON WWW.DESALINATION.BIZ CaRlSbad dESalinaTiOn agREEmEnT TO bE PubliShEd SOOn A proposed purchase agreement for water from the Carlsbad Desalination Plant will be released to the public later in August, the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) announced after a special meeting of the board on 9 August 2012. The release will open a 60-day public review period, and the public will be invited to provide comments at two special public meetings in September and at regularly scheduled meetings of the SDCWA's board of directors before the board takes action on the agreement this fall. During the two-month public review period, the SDCWA's 24 member agencies will be offered the opportunity to purchase a portion of the desalinated water from the authority as their own local supply. Interested member agencies must notify SDCWA of their intention to purchase desalinated water as local supply during the 60-day review period. Through the water purchase agreement with Poseidon Resources, SDCWA would bear no responsibility or liability for the seawater desalination plant. As the sole customer, the authority would purchase water produced at the plant at a predefined price. The price would also cover costs for design and construction of a new 10 mile (16 km) pipeline needed to deliver the water into SDCWA's existing aqueduct system. The price per acre-foot for the desalinated seawater, plus modifications to the Water Authority's aqueduct required to incorporate this new supply, is still being finalized, but is estimated at between US$ 2,000 to US$ 2,300 per acre-foot (US$ 1.62-1.86/m3). If the board approves the agreement, Poseidon would be authorized to finance the project and begin construction. The plant would produce up to 56,000 acre-feet/year (69 million m3/y) of desalinated seawater per year, enough to serve 112,000 households of four people. mElbOuRnE dESalinaTiOn COSTS STill hiTTing SuEz Cost overruns on the Victorian desalination plant in Melbourne are still hitting the bottom line of Suez Environnement, Europe's second largest water company reported on 1 August 2012. The Melbourne desalination plant, for which Suez subsidiary Degrémont is part of the constructing consortium, is almost completed and should be at full capacity in December, CEO JeanLouis Chaussade said in a statement. In total, the order has cost the company € 237 million in net income last year and € 52 million in the first six months of 2012. Suez reported an 82% drop in first-half profits with net income falling to € 40 million from € 221 million the previous year. nEw mOvES in mOnTEREy dESalinaTiOn dEbaTE The City of Pacific Grove's council has voted to approve a preliminary agreement to take the lead on one of the two alternatives | 26 | Desalination & Water Reuse | August-September 2012 to the principal proposal for a regional desalination project by California American Water (Cal Am). On 18 July 2012, the city agreed with developer Nader Agha's Moss Landing Commercial Park LLC to lead scoping for a People's Water Project on land owned by Agha. The "formation agreement" does not bind the city to proceed with the project, estimated to cost around US$ 130 million. Meanwhile, the original Regional Desalination Project was officially laid to rest by the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on 18 July 2012, when it issued a final decision allowing California American Water to withdraw from the project and closing the proceedings. As hearings before the PUC continue, CalAm and many of the potential desalination project participants and opponents are presenting legal arguments related to Cal Am's new project, and its two rivals. Cal Am has been told to reduce abstractions from the Carmel river by 60% by the end of 2016. A workshop was held by Cal Am to try to resolve questions related to water projections, project sizing, costs and, most crucially, a fallback plan if the new project also failed. This has resulted in the judge postponing further PUC review while the results of the workshop are considered by the parties. TOwER launChEd fOR mOnCOfa dESalinaTiOn inTakE A reinforced concrete tower which will form the intake structure of the Moncofa desalination plant was launched by the Spanish regional water authority Acuamed on 26 June 2012 at the port of Castellón de Burriana on the Mediterranean coast. The € 55.3 million Moncofa plant, which will have a production capacity of 10.5 million m3/year, is in the final phase of construction The project includes 8 km of pipelines for product distribution and a 30,000 m3 tank. The intake tower, which was towed into place, weighs 93 t and is 4 m high with an 8 m diameter. iTaly OPEnS iTS SECOnd laRgEST muniCiPal mbR PlanT Italy's second largest membrane bioreactor entered service on 17 July 2012 following the inauguration of the upgraded wastewater treatment plant in Borghetto Santo Spirito, a town on the Ligurian coast southwest of Genoa. The membrane plant was first constructed three years ago to initially treat 7,000 m3/d. With the new expansion, using GE ZeeWeed technology, the plant quadruples the flow and serves approximately 140,000 residents in the towns of Borghetto S Spirito, Loano, Toirano, Boissano, Balestrino and Ceriale. The expanded plant handles a maximum wastewater flow of