WesTech Engineering Inc is to design and build a full-scale groundwater nitrate treatment solution, featuring Microvi MNE™ technology, for the Cucamonga Valley Water District (CVWD) in Rancho Cucamonga, California, USA.
The multi-million-dollar turnkey project will reduce nitrate contamination without producing a significant waste stream, allowing CVWD to restore production from a critical local groundwater resource in a cost-effective manner. The full-scale system has the potential to provide over 2 billion gallons of clean drinking water per year by bringing three wells back online.
The project, a collaborative delivery between WesTech and CVWD, is scheduled to be completed in autumn 2019.
Microvi MNE is a single-pass system that requires minimal operation time and maintenance, while eliminating the need for biosolids treatment and disposal. Customized integrations of the Microvi MNE process for various applications have provided consistent nitrate removal with a significantly smaller footprint, minimal biosolids production, reduced pumping and aeration requirements, and reduced energy costs. The solution is operator friendly, stable, robust, and can be used in existing infrastructure.
Microvi MNE combines proprietary Microvi technology (MicroNiche Engineering) with proprietary WesTech process equipment. It is approved by the California Division of Drinking Water and has received NSF/ANSI61 consumer safety certification for use in treating drinking water.
WesTech has a global alliance agreement to commercialize the Microvi MNE solution for the water and wastewater industries.
Rex Plaizier, CEO of WesTech, said: “By using the Microvi MNE process, the new facility should have a 98.5% water recovery rate from the wells resulting in a very low 20-year life-cycle cost for the District.”
“Nitrate is one of the world’s leading groundwater pollutants. In the US alone, thousands of communities are struggling with high and increasing levels of nitrate,” said Dr Fatemeh Shirazi, CEO and CTO of Microvi. “Microvi MNE provides a sustainable, cost effective alternative to decades-old technologies which produce a significant waste stream—this means we can enable more communities to access clean water, equitably and affordably.”
