ITT saves a dry town

Very soon, Cloudcroft, New Mexico, will become one of the first towns in the US to recycle all of its water. Every drop that goes down the pipes will be cleaned by technologies from the ITT Corporation and returned to the community for dishwashing, irrigation, clothes washing, street cleaning and even drinking.

The Village of Cloudcroft resides in south-central New Mexico at an elevation of 8,500 feet with a population of 1,000 people. Like other communities in New Mexico, Cloudcroft is faced with sustainable water supply issues. The village economy relies heavily on tourism with a ski hill, golf course and multiple summer events. With the village currently trucking in water from out of town to satisfy their water requirements during peak demand periods, the village council and local business owners realised the need for a sustainable water source to preserve the village economy.

The technologies for total water recycling have been around for years, but when communities gather to consider these solutions, someone inevitably refers to it as a “toilet to tap” system and the yuck factor kicks in. “The public doesn’t really understand the water cycle,” says John Koch, product manager for ITT’s Advanced Water Treatment division. “These water re-use systems mimic what happens in nature, and they take out everything but the H2 and O. People just need to be educated.”

Or scared. Cloudcroft’s 800 residents were driven to the idea of a water re-use system when their town dried up. A drought that is expected to continue for years left the town’s wells empty, its springs at half-flow and its economy sputtering. Cloudcroft is reported to produce between 80,000 and 100,000 gallons of effluent daily. Says Mike Nivison, who had been mayor before becoming the village administrator in 1996, “This village has always been out front with environmental issues. We’re still in a drought period and not out of danger. What we need to put back is close to 90 percent.”

A total systems provider

When Governor Bill Richardson announced that New Mexico was making US$10 million available to communities willing to invest in innovative water conservation measures, Cloudcroft residents put aside their worries about recycled wastewater and received US$600,000 from the state for a new US$2 million water re-use system. After reviewing the long-term needs of the village, it was determined that an integrated water reuse system would best address Cloudcroft’s immediate and long-term needs.

The recommended water reuse system consisted of membrane bioreactor (MBR) and reverse osmosis (RO) systems for wastewater treatment and an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane system for water treatment. ITT was quickly identified as the best equipment provider for the town’s unique water re-use system. “This is a multi-stage treatment process, and we wanted a single equipment provider to ensure that the system and service ran as smoothly as possible. ITT was the only company that could provide the entire package,” says Eddie Livingston, head of Livingston Associates, the water resource engineering firm behind the project.

The proposed wastewater system – referred to as an integrated membrane system (IMS) – uses an ITT Dual Stage MBR to replace the current Cloudcroft wastewater treatment system. The selection of the Dual Stage MBR for wastewater treatment was based on the intent of reusing the treated wastewater to supplement the irrigation water demand and the potable water demand of the community. The MBR provides a very high degree of treatment, combining activated sludge for organic and nutrient removal with membrane filtration for liquid solids separation.

In addition to the MBR, an ITT RO system was designed to follow the MBR process as an additional wastewater treatment step. The RO system was selected to provide further treatment to the MBR effluent prior to disinfection and discharge to the Cloudcroft raw water storage reservoir. The raw water storage reservoir collects and retains Cloudcroft’s water source that includes ground and spring water from local wells. The highly treated wastewater discharge will be used to supplement the current raw water supply to meet the full potable water demand of the community.

The IMS also utilises an ultrafiltration membrane system supplied by ITT to convert raw water to drinking water. The UF water treatment membrane system receives water from the raw water storage reservoir, providing the necessary filtering to produce drinking water.

The Cloudcroft, NM project involved multiple ITT brands with Sanitaire providing the MBR system, WET providing the RO and UF membrane systems and Royce Technologies providing the necessary instrumentation. “I think they felt comfortable with us because we could provide all of the parts,” said Koch. The proposed system treats approximately 100,000 gallons/day and has been sized to easily expand to 200,000 gallons/day in the future.

The Cloudcroft project is seen as a precursor of things to come in the US and around the world. Many companies are already recycling wastewater for industrial—or “grey water”—use within their plants, but turning it into drinking water for an entire town is a huge step forward. “At ITT, we’ve known this could work for years, and now the need is catching up to our vision,” says Chuck Reading, president of ITT’s Advanced Water Treatment business. “With water shortages sadly becoming more of a reality, we can use Cloudcroft to show other communities that the ultimate form of water conservation is within their grasp, too.”

The new water cycle in Cloudcroft

The Cloudcroft water recycling system is scheduled to become operational in late 2006 or early 2007. When it comes online, it will process nearly 100,000 gallons of wastewater daily, without a drop going to waste. Here’s how:

• Water leaves homes or businesses and is pumped to the Cloudcroft wastewater treatment plant. ITT’s membrane bioreactor removes suspended solids, phosphorous, nitrogen and biochemical oxygen demand.
• Approximately 10 percent of the water is siphoned off for irrigation of community golf courses and ball fields.
• The remainder of the water flows 400 feet downhill to an ITT reverse osmosis system, which removes dissolved solids including sales and nitrates. The gravity system saves energy costs, and the reject water produced during the RO process is redirected for firefighting, snowmaking and dust control on local logging roads.
• Water is pumped to a two-million gallon reservoir, where it is mixed with spring water and well water. (The addition of outside water makes this an “indirect” re-use system, but ITT’s technologies could achieve the same results in a “direct” system where no water was added.) The water is stored for 30 days for natural treatment by diffusion and sunlight.
• Water is pumped to an ITT ultrafiltration system which removes any fine solids, bacteria and viruses.
• Water is treated with chlorine and sent to storage tanks.
• Water is ready for consumption and is pumped to homes and businesses in town.