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Tapping Alternative Water Supplies for Treatment

Tetra Tech is making a difference by helping the City of North Miami Beach, Florida, become the first public utility provider in Miami-Dade County to tap the brackish Floridan Aquifer as a source of drinking water. Using innovative membrane technologies, Tetra Tech is supporting the city in its efforts to make the best use of local water resources.

For cities like North Miami Beach, available sources of fresh water have become increasingly limited. Maximizing water resources through the use of alternative water supplies such as brackish water requires state-of-the-art desalination facilities to provide adequate treatment.

The new facility provides clean, safe, drinking water for more than 180,000 customers in Florida’s most populous county. The facility also provides water to Dolphin Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins, the Florida Marlins, and the Orange Bowl. The expansion more than doubled the capacity of the Norwood-Oeffler Water Treatment Plant, from 15 million gallons per day (mgd) to 32 mgd.

The facility includes raw water supply, pre-treatment, 9 mgd of nanofiltration, 6 mgd of low pressure reverse osmosis, degasification facilities, finished water storage and pumping facilities, and a deep injection well for concentrate disposal. The facility was completed in 2008 and includes an operations building, laboratory, and a training facility.

Tetra Tech has broad experience applying membrane treatment technologies to successful water treatment projects nationwide. Recent examples include work for communities in Texas, California, Florida, and throughout the country. In recognition of our work, Engineering News-Record magazine named Tetra Tech the nation’s number one provider of Water Treatment/Desalination services in 2008.

Highlight:

• Tetra Tech included energy recovery devices and recycling of the membrane system concentrate to ensure the economic viability of the water program and to provide a sustainable facility for the City.