Abstract
Extreme seasonal water use variation necessitates the design and construction of some membrane water treatment plants to meet the full peak demand. The full treatment plant capacity is only utilized during a relatively small portion of the year, which is an inefficient way to utilize a membrane treatment facility containing permeators that require replacement in a set number of years regardless of the use rate. If the peak demand occurs only during a few days in a given year, then the demand can be met by increasing storage within the distribution system. However, when the peak demand is based on population variations over a period of several months in a year, such as in South Florida, the system storage cannot provide the necessary volume of water to meet seasonal demand. A cost-effective alternative to a larger membrane treatment plant capacity is aquifer storage and recovery of treated water. The concept of aquifer storage and recovery is quite simply the use of an aquifer as a giant subsurface storage tank. In Collier County, Florida, the population nearly triples during the tourist season occurring between December and April . This seasonal population increase also corresponds to the dry season, when only a small percentage of annual rainfall occurs. During the wet season, June to October, the excess plant capacity will be used to produce treated water that will be injected into a brackish water aquifer lying between 450 and 550 feet below land surface. The injected, treated freshwater displaces the brackish native water occurring in the aquifer. When the full treatment plant capacity is required, injection is discontinued. As demand increases above plant treatment capacity, fresh water is recovered from the aquifer, disinfected and blended with the newly treated water. Aquifer storage and recovery can be a viable method of increasing water treatment efficiency and promoting energy conservation.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
