Consulting firm CP&Y helped the San Antonio Water System save more than $40 million and reduce water usage by 130 billion gallons over the life of the project at Dos Rios Water Recycling Center.
The American Council of Engineering Companies of Texas awarded the firm a National Grand Award for its work on the San Antonio Water System’s Dos Rios Water Recycling Center Tertiary Filters Project.
The San Antonio Water System sought to double capacity and replace existing tertiary filters at the Dos Rios Water Recycling Center. Conventional expansion was inefficient and costly. To reduce costs, CP&Y was able to adapt more efficient cloth media technology into the existing structure, doubling capacity within the same footprint by using the AquaDiamond cloth media filter from Aqua-Aerobic Systems.
This filter combines two technologies: traveling bridge and cloth media filters. The result is two to three times the flow capacity of a traveling bridge filter within an equivalent footprint.
The Dos Rios Water Recycling Center is at the heart of the nation’s largest direct recycle water delivery system, and filtration is the single most critical step before recycling. The sustainable approach makes the project the first-of its-kind and will aid other utilities in retrofitting similar facilities, with potential savings in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Aqua-Aerobic says.
The Dos Rios Water Recycling Center is now the world’s largest diamond cloth media filter installation, and the first to retrofit using a front-to-back arrangement.
Last week Qualcomm, CH2M Hill and the city of Cincinnati said they are collaborating on sustainability projects that use machine-to-machine (M2M) cellular technologies to help water utilities improve water quality, receive reliable information and manage water resources in the city.