Marine Corps Base Camp Joseph H. Pendleton (Camp Pendleton), one of the largest and busiest military bases in the country, will replace chlorine gas systems at 10 of its well sites with on-site electrolytic chlorination (OSEC®) systems from USFilter Wallace & Tiernan Products. USFilter will also provide two additional systems for backup trailers that will be used while the permanent systems are being installed. Chlor-Serv, the service contractor for the project, is providing the actual trailers.
The OSEC system uses a combination of salt, electricity and water to produce 0.8% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) that will not degrade in storage or lose product strength. The dilute form of NaOCl is safer to handle than the commercial form. As the NaOCl is less than 1% concentration, Camp Pendleton does not need to implement a costly Risk Management Plan nor follow special containment or Process Safety Management requirements for hazardous material regulatory criteria. In addition, the system’s automated design–either flow proportional (flow control) or compound loop control (flow and/or residual control)–will provide system autonomy.
Camp Pendleton has a virtually autonomous drinking water supply system, and sprawls across 125,000 acres of largely undeveloped land in southern California. Almost 400 species of mammals and birds live on or near the base, of which 18 are federally listed as threatened or endangered. Two of those species, the coastal California gnatcatcher (bird) and arroyo toad directly impact the project.
Both species have a mating season of March to September. Per the Endangered Species Act, work can only be done around each well site during non-mating season months.
The two-year project is currently in the design phase, but will enter the construction phase this fall, post-mating season.
Roger Lane, San Diego area manager at Miller/Watts Constructors, Inc., the general contractor for the design/build project, cites the good partnering effort between the government agencies and private firms as being key to the project’s success.
"The U.S. Marine Corps and Camp Pendleton wanted to partner with firms that could provide the highest quality service and state-of-the-art on-site generated sodium hypochlorite equipment available," says Lane. "We knew our team, which also consisted of Chlor-Serv, engineering firm J.B. Young and Associates and USFilter Wallace & Tiernan Products, would completely satisfy our client’s expectations."
Source: USFilter
