Located within the arid Chihuahuan Desert, El Paso Water’s (EPWater) service area is prone to droughts and the surface water supply is unreliable. To conserve their available resources and diversify their water supply, EPWater is currently constructing the Pure Water Center, the first “direct-to-distribution” direct potable reuse (DPR) facility in the U.S. This historic facility will be located on EPWater’s treatment campus, which also includes a surface water treatment plant and a wastewater treatment plant.

Carollo serves as this project’s prime consultant, leading the Pure Water Center’s preliminary design, detailed design, construction phase services, and post-construction services. The Pure Water Center will use a treatment train of membrane filtration, reverse osmosis, advanced oxidation with ultraviolet light and hydrogen peroxide, granular activated carbon for peroxide quenching, and chlorine disinfection. The facility will treat secondary effluent from the Roberto R. Bustamante Wastewater Treatment Plant to produce up to 10 million gallons per day (mgd) of water after blending. The purified water will be blended with groundwater to help stabilize it and will be introduced directly into the potable water distribution system via conveyance infrastructure that is also used for finished water produced by the adjacent Jonathan W. Rogers Water Treatment Plant.

Carollo has completed required technical evaluations, preliminary engineering, design and pilot services as well as ushered in a successful grant-funding application. We are continuing to provide regulatory liaison and permitting support as we move through the construction phase for this full-scale DPR treatment system.