American Water announced that it received the 2010 Public-Private Partnership Award from the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships (NCPPP). The award recognizes exemplary projects and services that illustrate best practices and innovative approaches in the use of public-private partnerships (PPP). The NCPPP awarded American Water the honor in the Innovation category for the company’s approach to a PPP with the city of Fillmore, Calif., to design, build and operate the Fillmore Water Recycling Plant.
“We are proud to receive the NCPPP Award, and we share this honor with our colleagues from the city of Fillmore,” said Mark Strauss, senior vice president of corporate strategy and business development for American Water. “The Fillmore plant illustrates how public-private partnerships can help communities tackle an infrastructure challenge while maximizing efficiency and value.”
In response to a consent degree order to dramatically improve the quality of treated wastewater discharges to the Santa Clara River, the city of Fillmore elected to contract with American Water to build a new, state-of-the-art water recycling plant that would end the practice of river discharges and enable development of a full-scale water reuse system to benefit many areas of the town. The result is a facility that meets the stringent requirements of federal and state regulations as a zero-discharge facility and a water-recycling program that irrigates school grounds, parks and other green areas.
The plant currently produces 1 million gal of water per day that meet the standards for unrestricted reuse irrigation purposes. The current irrigation system provides 200,000 gal per day to two public schools, the new Two Rivers Park and a new greenbelt along a historic railroad in downtown Fillmore. About 800,000 gal per day is discharged to percolation ponds and an underground effluent disposal system that provides groundwater recharge. The irrigation system has reduced the use of potable water sufficiently enough to allow the city to postpone drilling a new well and has helped preserve its limited supply of quality potable water.
The plant also features advanced technology that maximizes energy efficiency, helping to keep costs down. A flow-equalization system minimizes water flow during the day, when cost and energy use is highest. Wastewater is cycled back into the plant where it is treated during off-peak hours, when power demand and cost are lower.
The award will be presented Nov. 17 at the NCPPP Annual Awards Banquet, held in conjunction with the Council’s annual meeting in Arlington, Va. The NCPPP is a non-profit educational institute with membership from both public and private sectors that promotes the use of PPPs where appropriate and the use of their best practices.
Source: American Water
