Oxnard's Membrane Concentrate Pilot

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Oxnard's Membrane Concentrate Pilot OXNARD’S MEMBRANE CONCENTRATE PILOT WETLANDS PROJECT BAYS FRANK AND ORTEGA PRESENTED AT WATER REUSE SYMPOSIUM, SEPTEMBER 9-12 2007, TAMPA FL OXNARD’S MEMBRANE CONCENTRATE PILOT WETLANDS PROJECT James Bays, CH2M HILL, Tampa, FL Paul Frank, CH2M HILL, Oakland, CA Ken Ortega, Public Works Department, Oxnard, CA Introduction As membrane separation becomes more widespread as a water quality improvement technology, the need for environmentally acceptable methods of concentrate disposal has become acute. Recently, a range of beneficial and non-traditional uses of membrane concentrate were reviewed and summarized with the intention of informing the water and wastewater treatment community about alternatives to conventional disposal methods (WRA, 2006). One such alternative is the use of concentrate to create or enhance productive brackish marsh habitat. Because of the long history and expanding horizon of wetlands treatment of industrial, municipal, and agricultural effluents and stormwater runoff (Kadlec and Knight, 1996), a technological basis exists for investigating wetlands reuse of concentrate. Recently, the City of Oxnard in Ventura County CA conducted the Membrane Concentrate Pilot Wetlands Study to investigate the feasibility of wetland reuse of concentrate as part of the City’s Groundwater Recovery Enhancement and Treatment (GREAT) Program, a project implemented to develop additional sources of alternative water supply to continue meeting the City’s goal of providing current and future residents and businesses with a reliable and affordable source of high-quality water. This program combines wastewater recycling and reuse; groundwater injection, storage, and recovery; and groundwater desalination for water supply solutions to the Oxnard region (CH2M HILL, 2004). The GREAT Program includes construction of two treatment plants: • The “Desalter” will remove salts and minerals from brackish groundwater for potable use. • The “Advanced Water Purification Facility”, or AWPF, will remove nutrients, salts, minerals, and other contaminants from secondary effluent from the City’s wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) for reuse, including agricultural irrigation, groundwater recharge, and municipal and industrial (M&I) uses. Membrane concentrate to be generated by these treatment plants will be disposed of through the Oxnard WWTP deep ocean outfall. A conceptual alternative to ocean disposal could be the use of membrane concentrate as a water source to create or restore brackish or salt marsh wetlands, if found to be compatible with the local environment. Because California’s coastal wetlands occur in estuaries where freshwater streams meet the sea, there is a pronounced salinity gradient in these estuaries that overlaps membrane concentrate ionic strength and composition. If feasible, membrane concentrate could be used for beneficial creation of new coastal marshes or for enhancing flow to existing marshes. To begin to address the feasibility of this concept, the City decided early in the Program that a pilot study would be necessary to provide preliminary design criteria and a tangible proof of the concept. Three phases of pilot testing were conducted as follows: • Initial testing was conducted that included construction, operation, and testing of pilot wetland mesocosms from June 2003 through May 2004. The goal of this testing was to demonstrate the safety and potential beneficial use of concentrate for wetlands restoration (CH2M HILL 2003, 2004). 1 OXNARD’S MEMBRANE CONCENTRATE PILOT WETLANDS PROJECT BAYS FRANK AND ORTEGA PRESENTED AT WATER REUSE SYMPOSIUM, SEPTEMBER 9-12 2007, TAMPA FL • Additional testing was conducted by re-configuring the initial pilot wetland mesocosms over a 6- month period from September 2004 through March 2005. The goal of this testing was to assess the treatment effectiveness of an optimized series of pilot wetlands mesocosms (CH2M HILL, 2005). • Final sampling of the mesocosms was conducted in July 2006 to quantify the distribution and accumulation of salts (CH2M HILL, 2007). The paper describes the Research Plan, key findings and approaches of the two testing phases, final sampling, and description of AWPF. Original reports and additional information on the GREAT Program and the Membrane Concentrate Pilot Wetlands can be accessed at the City of Oxnard’s Water Division web site www.oxnardwater.org/projects/great/wetlands.asp. Research Plan A detailed Research Plan was prepared outlining the rationale, testable hypotheses, research platform and sampling plan (CH2M HILL 2003). The rationale for conducting the study includes the following: If shown to be environmentally safe, membrane concentrate may be useful as a source of water for the creation of new wetlands or for the restoration of existing salt marsh wetlands. The potential supply of membrane concentrate may be useful to the restoration of the Ormond Beach wetlands. An environmentally safe reuse of membrane concentrate could minimize the need and cost of other disposal options. Very little information is available in the published literature on the effects, treatment, or reuse of membrane concentrate. Results obtained from this study could prove beneficial to water supply managers worldwide, particularly in the arid west and sunbelt states. The Membrane Concentrate Pilot Wetlands Project is designed to test the following hypotheses concerning the reuse of membrane concentrate: Concentrate can sustain viable native plant communities. By planting the pilot system with native wetland plants, and monitoring their growth characteristics, species water quality tolerance and improvement potential can be determined under hydraulic regimes similar to those that might be implemented on a larger scale Removal of non-conservative elements will occur through natural biological and chemical transformation processes and will vary among wetland types. The types of pilot systems selected have been based upon known configurations that have been reported to treat common pollutants. This study is designed to allow comparison of wetland influent and effluent water quality within each cell to determine cell pollutant removal performance and compare to published water quality improvement models. For the purpose of this study, “non-conservative” elements include those with removal pathways significantly affected directly or indirectly by biological uptake and transformations, including nitrogen, phosphorus, carbonaceous compounds, and metals (specifically: Al, Sb, As, Ba, Be Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Hg, Ni, Se, Ag, Th, V, Zn). Some removal of conservative elements can occur through physical/chemical processes, and removal will vary among wetland types. Few studies are available in the literature have reported on treatment of brackish waters and their compounds. For this study, conservative elements are considered to be salts or inorganic compounds, aggregated as hardness, total dissolved solids, alkalinity, or specific conductance, and specific ions (i.e., B, Ca, Mg, K, Na, SO4, Cl, and F). Discharge is ecologically safe to wetland biota. By comparing samples taken of the brackish 2 OXNARD’S MEMBRANE CONCENTRATE PILOT WETLANDS PROJECT BAYS FRANK AND ORTEGA PRESENTED AT WATER REUSE SYMPOSIUM, SEPTEMBER 9-12 2007, TAMPA FL concentrate at the influent and effluent from each of the cells, changes in toxicity of the effluent to brackish and saltwater organisms can be assessed. This information can be used to determine if water quality components exceed criteria or pose a concern to native aquatic organisms. The Pilot Wetlands research platform consisted of twelve one-cubic meter wetland tank mesocosms constructed from agricultural fruit storage bins comprising two replicates of six wetland types (Table 1; Figure 1). Pilot testing conducted from 2003 through May 2006 consisted of supplying the tanks with 25 to 75 gallons per day from a storage tank filled weekly with concentrate trucked from the nearby Brackish Water Reclamation Demonstration Facility operated by the Port Hueneme Water Authority. Table 1. Summary of Mesocosm Types, Media, Water Depth and Plants Mesocosm Type ID Media Water Depth Plants Surface flow high marsh SFHM 12 inches local 4 inches Distichlis, Anemopsis, Jaumea Surface flow low marsh SFLM 12 inches local 18 inches Scirpus Horizontal subsurface flow SSF 24 inches gravel -4 inches Jaumea, Anemopsis, Salicornia Peat-based vertical upflow VF 8 inches peat saturated Distichlis, Anemopsis, over 18 inches Jaumea, Juncus, gravel Monanthochloe Submerged aquatic vegetation SAV 12 inches local 18 inches Potamogeton Saltgrass evaporation SE 18 inches local saturated Distichlis Of the wetland types selected, the SF high marsh, SF low marsh, and the SAV cells represent the major brackish water plant communities known to exist within the existing Ormond Beach wetlands. Testing this broad spectrum of plant types will establish if any are inherently more sensitive than other types to this water source and quality. The SSF and VF cells test two wetland technologies that offer potential for reduction of water quality parameters of greatest concern to plant life and wetland wildlife, such as boron and selenium, while significantly minimizing potential contact with wildlife. These types of wetlands represent natural "end-of-pipe" treatment systems that could further buffer or polish water that is discharged from the membrane treatment facility before its application to a wetland restoration site. All of the mesocosms were planted with local species typically found
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