Texas Utility Launches Landmark Water Reuse Project
El Paso Water broke ground in Texas on the Pure Water Center, the nation’s first direct-to-distribution potable reuse facility.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Designed by Carollo Engineers and soon to be built by a joint venture of PCL and Sundt Construction, the project will treat secondary effluent from the Roberto R. Bustamante Wastewater Treatment Plant to produce up to 10 million gallons per day of high-quality purified water. The facility, on which work got underway last month, is expected to be operational by 2028.
Unlike indirect potable reuse, which relies on environmental buffers such as reservoirs or aquifers, the Pure Water Center will introduce purified water directly into the potable distribution system. This sets it apart from the Colorado River Municipal Water District’s Big Spring facility in Big Spring, Texas, the nation’s first example of direct potable reuse. That project, launched in 2013, produces reclaimed water that is blended with raw surface water before undergoing conventional drinking water treatment.
The Pure Water Center will blend the purified water with up to 2 million gallons per day of treated brackish groundwater before delivering the water straight into the city’s drinking supply. According to Carollo, the blending step helps stabilize the finished water, reducing corrosivity before it enters the distribution system.
