캘리포니아 샌 루이스 오비스포(San Luis Obispo) 카운티 이사회는 긴급 수자원으로서 처리된 폐수를 디아블로 협곡(Diablo Canyon) 원자력 플랜트에 위치한 담수화 시설의 확장량 및 대수층에 추가하는 하수재생프로그램을 승인했다.

몇 년의 가뭄을 거치며 사우스 카운티의 주요 수자원인 로페즈호(Lopez Lake)의 수량은 29%까지 감소했고, 대수층도 줄어들었다. 디아블로 협곡에 위치한 하루 3.2Ml 규모의 담수화 플랜트 확장이 제안됐으며, 프로젝트가 진행될 경우 RO 시설 확장을 통해 연간 1천250Ml의 새로운 물이 생산될 것으로 보인다.

 

 

 

California's San Luis Obispo County board of supervisors has approved a sewage reclamation project that could add treated wastewater to an aquifer and the expansion of a desalination facility at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant as emergency water supply options.

 

Years of drought have reduced South County's main water source, Lopez Lake, to 29% capacity, shrunk aquifers and made deliveries from the State Water Project pipeline unreliable.

 

A proposed expansion of Diablo Canyon's 3.2 Ml/d desalination plant has the potential to produce the most new water - as much as 1,250 Ml a year through expansion of the reverse osmosis facility.

 

A 10 km pipeline would have to be installed to connect the plant to the Lopez Lake pipeline. A feasibility study is underway.

 

Deputy public works director, Mark Hutchinson, told local press that the planing project would cost up to US$ 500,000 and construction of the pipeline would cost up to US$ 11 million. He said the county would seek state grants for drought relief to offset the costs.

 

A sewage reclamation project at Pismo Beach could generate some 800 Ml of treated, recycled wastewater to be injected into groundwater supplies. That project has become a regional one, with other cities in the area collaborating. Construction could begin next year and finish at the end of 2018.

 

Saltwater intrusion into the Santa Maria groundwater basin since 2009 forced water retailers to reduce their pumping to 30% of their entitlements. Low reservoir levels in Northern California have led to severely limited deliveries from the State Water Project in 2014 and 2015.

 

The Diablo Canyon desalination facility has been operating at 40 % capacity to meet the power station's needs. The desalination report identified other opportunities including expansion of other desalination facilities in Morro Bay and Cambria and co-locating new facilities on industrial sites.

 

[출처 = Desalination & Water Reuse / 2016년 3월 1일]