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Tarpon To Study Deep Well Injection
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Published: October 10, 2008
Updated:
TARPON SPRINGS - It's always good to have a Plan B ready when designing a reverse-osmosis water treatment plant, says Bob Robertson.
According to Robertson, program manager, development of the city's water treatment plant is moving along according to schedule.
Pilot well testing to verify the quality of the water the plant will treat and design concept validation have been completed and the permitting, engineering and design process is continuing, he says.
Tuesday night Robertson told the City Commission the water plant's design team wants to evaluate the feasibility of deep-well injection as a potential alternative to surface discharge of the concentrated byproduct of the reverse-osmosis desalination process into the Gulf of Mexico.
The water plant's briny waste would be treated before it is discharged into the gulf to prevent it from harming the environment. Nevertheless, Robertson wants to have an alternative method tested and available should the winds of permitting change, he said.
In the alternative disposal method the water plant's discharge would be pumped deep underground.
Commissioners agreed to fund the design of the deep-well injection alternative, as part of funding for engineering of the water distribution system.
Construction of the plant, designed to produce 6.4 million gallons a day of potable water from brackish well water, is expected to be completed in 2010. The city consumes about 5 mgd of water it purchases from Pinellas County Utilities.
Salt-water intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay rendered much of the water beneath Pinellas County undrinkable decades ago. As large amounts of fresh water were pumped from the underground aquifer, the resulting drop in pressure allowed salt water to seep in.
To help reclaim this long-lost resource the Southwest Florida Water Management District is giving the city $20.1 million toward the cost of constructing the $45 million reverse-osmosis plant. A bond issue city voters approved will pay the rest of the cost.
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