The City of Hardinsburg, Kentucky (City) currently owns and operates a 1.6 million gallon per
day (MGD) surface water treatment plant located on Rough River Reservoir in the extreme
southern portion of Breckinridge County, Kentucky. The current water treatment plant (WTP)
obtains its water from a tributary to the main stem of the reservoir. For several years, the City
has been battling with siltation problems with the raw water intake structure and the formation of
disinfection/disinfectant byproducts (D/DBP) due to the high organic content of the reservoir's
water.
Since 1999, the City has been looking for and evaluating new and reliable raw water sources for
their customers. In 2001, the City made the decision to relocate the WTP to the alluvium fields
along the Ohio River in the northeast part of the county (approximately 20 miles from the
existing WTP.) In July 2001, it was determined that an abundant source of water was available
for a new plant to serve the City, now and for many years into the future. However, initial water
quality test results, indicated high hardness (> 300 mg/l CaCO3) and high nitrate levels (8 mg/l
±) in the groundwater source. The City has determined that the local groundwater was the best
available raw water source to use for the new WTP, as they did not want to continue facing
problems associated with surface water treatment of the reservoir water that they currently
experience. Based on the proposed groundwater source, the City began evaluating state-of-the-art
treatment technologies to meet the current drinking water quality regulations as well as being
prepared for future regulations.
The treatment technology chosen was low-pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) to remove the
high hardness and high levels of nitrates with one treatment process. This treatment technology
is the first of its kind in the State of Kentucky for the treatment of groundwater for a potable
drinking water system. The drinking water treatment program will include an on-site membrane
pilot test for the treatment of this groundwater source. This paper discusses the procedures
and protocol developed for conducting the 90-day pilot study demonstrating hardness and
nitrate removal utilizing LPRO. The paper also discusses how the pilot study assisted in the
evaluation and development of design criteria including operating conditions, and raw water
blending percentages in order to meet the water quality goals established by the City for the
final product. Includes tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 570 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 19 |
| Published : | 06/17/2004 |
