Wichita Falls, Texas, USA – Raw Water Augmentation in use from July 2014 to July 2015
Faced with a new drought of record (2011-2015), drawing the available surface water reservoirs to 19%, Wichita Falls embarked on developing a temporary direct potable reuse system to get them through the drought, and a permanent indirect potable reuse system to help them be more tolerant of future droughts (see Wichita Falls 2: Permanent indirect potable reuse at Cypress Water Treatment Facility).
The direct potable reuse system took the high quality wastewater effluent, which was meeting 97% of the primary drinking water standards, and transmitted it down a temporary pipeline to the Cypress Water Treatment Facility where it underwent additional purification through an existing microfiltration, reverse osmosis unit that had been constructed in prior years to treat brackish surface water.
After that treatment, the now highly purified wastewater effluent was blended with raw surface water at a 50:50 ratio and treated through a conventional water treatment plant utilising disinfection, coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration and post disinfection. On site storage allowed for a 24 hour detention before the water was discharged to the public for use. This storage allowed the City to receive the majority of the water analysis and be able to intercept the water before discharging it, if there were any problems with the quality. This system ran non-stop and without incident from July 2014 through July 2015.
