Water. desalination + reuse

DWR FebMarch 2016

Water. Desalination + reuse

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| 20 | Desalination & Water Reuse | February-March 2016 projects Utility piles Us$ 330 million into emirates water projects Ras Al Khaimah-based utility, Utico, has invested AED 1.2 billion (U$ 326.7 million) in projects across the United Arab Emirates to meet their growing demand for power and water. The projects include a desalination facility to be set up in Ras Al Khaimah and a water transmission and storage project between Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjaha the firm said. Work has commenced on the AED 410 million (US$ 111.6 million) Ras Al Khaimah-Sharjah water transmission project, which can carry 200 Ml of water either way. Once operational, the project will have a final storage capacity of 400 Ml. The project will be implemented in two phases and will be completed in 18 to 32 months, with the pipeline operational in June 2017 said Utico. Utico said it will work closely with the Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority and the Federal Electricity and Water Authority. Once deployed, the project will supply more than 1.5 million residents in Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah. "The remarkable growth of population in Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain, Ajman and Sharjah puts an increasing demand for water, both for consumption as well as industrial purposes," said managing director at Utico, Richard Menezes. Solar power is being used for transmission and storage recirculation to contribute to its 10MW demand. Utico is also investing AED 719 million (US$ 196 million) in a water desalination project in Ras Al Khaimah as part of its joint venture, Al Hamra Water Company, with Spain's Grupo Cobra. The 100 Ml/d plant is scheduled to be operational in 2018. And Menezes said Utico is on course to set up a 40MW solar power plant, for which several bidders are vying for the contract. The company intends also to build more than 500 Ml/d of desalination capacity in the next six years with 250 Ml/d operational in three years. san antonio to get brackish desalination in 2016 The San Antonio Water System (SAWS) in Texas has announced that by October 2016 it will start up a US$ 114 million brackish water desalination project that will eventually become the largest in the US. SAWS is drilling through the freshwater Carrizo aquifer into the brackish Wilcox Aquifer. Desalinating Wilcox water is part of the agency's plan to reduce reliance on San Antonio's main water supply, the Edwards Aquifer which provides 63% of SAWS' water. SAWS expects the Edwards contribution to the region's supply to reach 38% over the next 20 years. Initially it will contribute 8% of the region's water supply. SAWS said it had devised measures for the desalination facility to avoid contamination of freshwater aquifers with brackish supplies and to deal with discharged brine. SAWS geologist, Richard Donat, said it had dismissed landfill and piping to a wastewater treatment plant on the grounds that both presented a threat to the local ecology. "The best option we saw was doing a deep well injection," said Donat. The brine, Donat said, will be disposed of nearly a mile underground. agency picks trio for desalination pipeline... US water agency, California American Water (CalAm), has selected three firms to construct a 30km pipeline with pumping stations and storage facilities to deliver desalinated water from a planned facility under its Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project. Garney Pacific, Mountain Cascade and Monterey Peninsula Engineering ranked highest on technical and business criteria and provided the lowest cost estimates on the parts of the project for which they were selected according to CalAm. Six firms had responded to a request for proposals issued in August. "Awarding the pipeline work to three firms provides advantages in terms of both schedule and cost," said CalAm's engineering manager, Ian Crooks. The trio join CDM Constructors contracted to build the desalination facility and Boart Longyear for the source wells. CalAm will provide the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project Governance Committee with statements of qualifications and proposals it received, along with its evaluation report and draft contracts. The committee will conduct its own review and make further recommendations on the award of the contracts, valued at some US$ 92 million. The Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project is planned as a replacement for the Carmel River as the peninsula's primary source of water supply. The project will include either a 40 Ml/d desalination plant or a 25 Ml/d one combined with advanced treated recycled water at 13 Ml/d from groundwater replenishment project, Pure Water Monterey. CalAm has firm bids in hand for all the major components of the project. The pipeline and conveyance bids were higher than expected, the company said, but the overall costs for the 40 Ml/d desalination plant were within cost estimates the firm gave to the California Public Utilities Commission in November 2013. CalAm said many elements remained subject to price cuts through value engineering scheduled to take place during the first half of 2016. "For the smaller desalination plant and groundwater replenishment combination, it appears that without significant grant contributions the economics on this option could be challenging. We will be working with Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency and the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District between now and the next California Public Utilities Commission testimony milestone in January 2016 to attempt to narrow this gap," said Crooks.

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