Brewing beer is a fine art requiring the delicate blending of grains and sensi- tive control of brewing temperatures. Genesee Brewing Company of Roches- ter, New York, has mastered that art and produces what James D. Robertson, au- thor of the Great American Beer Book, classifies as the best bock beer in the nation. Genesee Beer, Genesee Cream Ale, Genesee Light, Genesee 12 Horse Ale and Genesee Bock Beer are all pro- duced at the Genesee Brewing Com- pany, which was founded in 1878 and The new steam plant produces the steam needed to brew more than 3.6 million barrels of beer each year. has doubled in size over the past dec- ade. Now ranking as the country's ninth largest beer maker, Genesee brews more than 3.6 million barrels a year for thirsty connoisseurs in seventeen states from Ohio to Virginia and Maine. Their products are also sold in Ontario, Canada. Two 80,000-pound-per-hour boilers provide steam for pasteurization and sterilization, as Producing that quantity of beer re- well as for brewing. quires a substantial amount of steam to keep the liquid at just the right tempera- ture for proper mashing and brewing. In addition, steam is needed for the bottling process and for sterilization purposes. In total, the brewery uses 300 million pounds of process steam each year. Until recently, Genesee purchased allof its steam from a local utility. By 1981, however, costs for steam had become a major operating expense that 87 percent efficiency when burning #6 before natural gas prices rose as a result concerned Genesee's management. fuel oil. Steam turbine drives are used in- of scheduled deregulation. For this rea- They decided to investigate other ways stead of electric motors for all applica- son, a tight nine-month schedule was to meet their re-quirements. tions over 40 horsepower, and turbine decided on for construction of the plant. As an alternative, they found that the exhaust steam is used to preheat "When you invest $3.5 million to build a company could recover the cost of con- income-ing boiler makeup water. A plant, you are interested in getting paid structing and operating a new steam diesel generator is available to supply back quickly," said Frank Miller, Genesee facil-ity in less than three years. electrical power in case of a power project manager. Genesee's management chose to outage, thus ensuring that process In spite of a seven-week trade union construct a 160,000-pound-per-hour gas schedules can be followed. strike, the fast-track construction sche- and fuel-oil fired steam plant. They felt A water treatment system softens, de - dule was met, according to CH2M the plant should be completely reliable alkalizes and chemically conditions the HILL project manager Donn and should ensure maximum overall effi- boiler makeup water to prevent possible Cramblette. The plant first started ciency. internal corrosion from damaging the producing on September 7 and on Genesee contracted with CH2M HILL boilers, pumps and piping systems. October 4 it went on-line to provide to assist with planning, design, bid-ding, While construction and operation of its steam for brewery operation. construction and startup of the new own steam plant will produce a savings Besides meeting current steam re- facility. for the brewery, the company's quirements, the new plant is designed to The plant design features boilers that management saw that this savings enable the brewery to double its capac- are guaranteed to operate at more than would be greater if the project could be ity. The plant may also be adapted for completed cogeneration of electricity. 5 CH2M HILL REPORTS ADVANCE INDUSTRIAL PLANNING GUIDES EXPANSION OF SODA ASH OPERATIONS Story by Ed Christofferson Southern California's Owens Valley may soon be the b) site of a unique soda ash mining and processing oper- At Owens Lake the raw material from which soda ash is produced is now being mined. Soda ash is one of the world's most widely used chemicals. Manufacturers of ation with an annual production capacity of one million glass, soap, pulp and paper, iron, steel, aluminum, cleaning compounds, textiles tons of refined soda ash. The venture, planned by and many other products use soda ash in their processes. Cominco American, could account for more than 10 percent of annual U.S. production. The arid, sparsely populated Owens Valley separates the highest and lowest points in the continental United States: Mt. Whitney (elev. 14,495) and Death Valley (282 feet below sea level). Owens Lake. a dry lakebed, covers about 35 square miles highly regarded in California. At the same time, we conducted our in the southern end of the valley. own economic and process design feasibility studies." Owens Lake was once a navigable body of water with several Under the direction of project manager Brad Blandin, CH2M sources of inflow but no outlet. This caused an accumulation of HILL assessed the permit and study requirements the company salts in the lake water. In 1913, diversion of waters to the 233-mile- would have to meet to carry out the expansion. Water supply, long Los Angeles Aqueduct removed virtually all inflow of the waste disposal, archaeological sites, plant and animal life and air ' lake s major tributary, the Owens River, thus gradually exposing quality all had to be considered. the lakebed and concentrating the salts in the remaining water. The proximity of the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, just 25 Today, trona—a combination of sodium carbonate, sodium miles away, was a primary subject of concern. Located bicarbonate and water from which soda ash is produced—is downwind of the proposed project, the Center needs crystal- mined from the lakebed by the Lake Minerals Corporation (LMC). clear air for the weapons testing and tracking done there. LMC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cominco American. Com- "We used the only method developed to date that deals pre- inco American's parent company is Cominco Ltd. of Canada, a cisely with the question of visibility," said Brad Blandin. The firm's large, integrated natural resources company. LMC now mines study team developed a unique visibility model using the U.S. about 85,000 tons of trona annually by scraping the material from Environmental Protection Agency's plume visibility model as a the lakebed. starting point. "Based on Cominco American's operations speci- In 1980, planning for the possible acquisition of LMC, Cominco fications and local weather conditions, we calculated the altitude, American retained CH2M HILL to help determine the feasibility of direction and velocity emissions would travel and how they would expanding production and constructing a new processing plant. be dispersed," Blandin said. "Owens Lake is an environmentally sensitive area within 50 miles The analyses showed that even under the most adverse condi- of a national park," said LMC vice president Gary Carstens. "We tions. visibility at China Lake would not be reduced measurably hired CH2M HILL to evaluate the environmental aspects of the by the mining and refining operation. project because they are recognized experts in the field and are "We took the results of the studies to the Naval center and to the regulatory authorities," said Gary Carstens, "and we received favorable reactions that assured us that permitting for our pro- ject was possible." WINTER 1982 6 Union Water Company. Then in 1918, Denver citizens voted to buy out the pri- vate company and create the Denver Water Department. Today, the depart- ment faces the challenge of developing water treatment facilities for an estimated 1.1 million people by the year 2000. Long Distance Supplies The Rocky Mountains which give Den- ver its dramatic setting are also the source of the city's water supplies. West of the Continental Divide lie the Colorado River and its tributaries, which carry 70 percent of the state's surface water. The South Platte River, which flows east of the Divide through Denver, carries only 10 percent of the total streamflow. When the explorer Zebulon Pike This pioneer resourcefulness in finding Even in its early years, the Denver crossed the arid Western plains in 1808, ways to assure adequate water supplies Water Department began filing for water he noted in his diary that this vast area has been especially evident in Denver. rights west of the Divide and planning the "should be written off as uninhabitable." Even before the turn of the century, the development of transmountain water di- But history has proved Pike wrong. As it city's private water companies competed versions. Denver's present water supply turned out, the development of reliable fiercely to serve a growing population liv- comes from a system of four transmoun- water supplies for lands previously con- ing in a region that received only 12 to 13 tain tunnels, as well as from the water sidered unfit for cultivation or habitation inches of rain per year. basin formed by the eastern slopes of the became a crucial part of the "taming of By 1894, 10 water companies had Rockies. By the early 1970s, projections the West." either failed or merged into the Denver 7 CH7M HILL REPORTS of a 30 percent increase in the population to be served by the year 2000 made it clear that Denver's limited water treat- ment capability needed to be expanded. The department decided to develop a new treatment system that could increase its capacity in increments as demand grew. Located approximately 20 miles southwest of the city, the $175-million Foothills Project is now nearing comple- tion. The New System The system begins at the newly con- structed 300-foot-high Strontia Springs Dam, which creates a 2.5-billion-gallon reservoir on the South Platte River.