Sometime in the millennium year, treated wastewater from the Honouliuli treatment plant in Hawaii will be recycled for irrigation and as high purity water for local industry.
This innovative approach will be made possible by a 20-year public-private partnership between the City of Honolulu and USFilter's Operating Services group that includes designing, building, financing, owning and operating a 12 million (US) gallon-per-day (1890 m3/h) water reclamation facility on a site adjacent to the Honouliuli plant.
Says Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris: "The partnership eliminates the need for our community to spend millions of dollars to build treatment facilities necessary to meet a federal consent decree; secondly, it enables us to preserve limited potable water resources through the stringent treatment and reuse of wastewater."
USFilter will spearhead the multifaceted water reclamation project, which involves accepting up to 13 (US) mgd (2050 m3/h) of secondary effluent from the Honouliuli plant in order to produce 12 mgd for beneficial reuse. The company will also be responsible for marketing and distributing the water to the city and to commercial and industrial users.
The agreement includes a provision in which USFilter will guarantee the performance and maintenance of the treatment facility and related equipment throughout the 20-year period.
The new facility will utilize fine-media filtration, microfiltration and reverse osmosis processes supplied to treat secondary effluent now discharged into the Pacific Ocean. These processes will generate two grades of water. One grade is a high-purity water that will be sold to power and petro-refining companies at nearby Campbell Industrial Park. The other grade will be utilized for irrigation purposes. The city will purchase approximately (US) 6 mgd (950 m3/h) for irrigation needs, freeing up a comparable amount of potable water for residential needs. The agreement is valued at (US) $140 million.