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The City of Wilmington is currently designing an upgrade to the conventional treatment process at theirBrandywine Filtration Plant. The new process will include enhanced coagulation and ultrafiltration.During drought periods the plant will not be able to operate at its full capacity of 20 million gallons perday, due to a lack of source water from the Brandywine Creek. The excess treatment capacity could beused to pre-treat brackish water from a different source, thereby significantly reducing the cost toimplement RO compared to a stand-alone RO facility.A study was performed to evaluate the feasibility, develop design criteria and determine budgetary cost ofimplementing RO at the upgraded Brandywine Filtration Plant. Results of the study indicated that potablewater could be produced by the RO treatment system that would meet all drinking water regulations andthat the current plant upgrade project will provide excellent pretreatment of the water prior to thedesalination process. It is estimated that a new RO treatment system capable of producing 20 milliongallons per day during drought conditions can be constructed for approximately $21 million ifincorporated into the upgraded Brandywine Filtration Plant as currently designed, a cost savings of almost$40 million when compared to the stand-alone facility evaluated in 1997. The cost difference is due toutilization of the enhanced coagulation/ultrafiltration process for pre-treating the water prior to ROinstead of constructing an entirely new pretreatment system.This paper includes background information on northern Delaware regional water supply issues andprovides a brief description of the 20 mgd enhanced coagulation and ultrafiltration plant currently underdesign. Reverse osmosis treatment would be added to the plant to provide regional drought protection.Design criteria and budgetary costs are included. Permitting and environmental issues are also covered.Future project implementation steps and issues are discussed. Includes 4 references, tables, figure.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 11/02/2003 Number of Pages: 12File Size: 1 file , 310 KB