Project Spotlight: East Bay Municipal Utility District

Romtec Utilities recently completed a project with the East Bay Municipal Utility District to reclaim water from the San Pablo Water Treatment Plant. This pump station construction is a part of a larger project to bring the water treatment plant back into operation after being decommissioned for several years. The East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) plans to use the treatment plant to treat water from the nearby San Pablo Reservoir in response to California’s ongoing drought conditions. The Romtec Utilities pump station will help the plant be more efficient in its water use as it comes into operation.

In the interest of efficient water use, EBMUD utilized an old treatment pond downhill from the treatment plant, transforming it into a retention pond for water used during backwash. The system works as follows:

• 1. The backwash cycle runs through the treatment plant, and the water from the backwash drains downhill to the retention pond.
  2. Suspended Solids settle out over a minimum retention time in the pond.
  3. The pump station decants the relatively clean water from the surface of the pond water and pumps it upstream into the water treatment inlet.
  4. This reclaimed backwash water is treated with water from the reservoir to become potable water.
  5. The remaining water and sludge in the pond is pumped from a sump at the low point of the pond to the municipal sewer system for appropriate treatment. (The pond has a water canon at the shallow end to assist in cleaning and dredging.)

This system utilizes water management technologies available at the plant in a resource conservation application. This reduces the impact on the wastewater treatment plant downstream while also decreasing the amount of water required from the reservoir. Helping to maintain healthy water levels in the reservoirs is an important engineering challenge in California. Processes and systems like this one demonstrate the way that California is adapting and evolving to decrease the stress on its water resources.

Due to the relative simplicity of the system, there are widespread applications to improve America’s aging clean water infrastructure. The design of this pump station is not typical for how Romtec Utilities normally designs pumping systems, but it fits the needs and project goals for EBMUD to increase efficiency in its water usage. Romtec Utilities worked to develop a lift station capable of meeting these goals while operating in an unusual application.