Full Description

Alameda County Water District (ACWD) serves the cities of Fremont, Newark and UnionCity, California. Commercial, Industrial and Institutional (CII) customers comprise 30% ofACWD customer base. Water efficiency efforts in the CII sector are a part of ACWD'sgoals related to its Integrated Resource Plan and the Best Management Practices (BMP) inthe Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) set forth by the California Water ConservationCouncil.A pilot program, conducted in 1998, identified the ten most significant CII water usercategories, and performed an Industrial Water Use Efficiency (IWUE) at one firm fromeach of the top five water-using industries. Pilot surveys quantified cost effective measuresfor each industrial and large institutional customer group. The second phase of the CIIprogram, which took place during 1999-2002, consisted of performing water efficiencysurveys at 17 industrial and institutional facilities that had been targeted from the top 25CII water users in ACWD's service area. The studies identified a variety of opportunitiesto increase water use efficiency at the plants surveyed. These water use efficiencyopportunities included repairing large leaks, eliminating once through cooling, replacinghigh flow sanitary fixtures and increasing cooling tower efficiency. WUE surveysidentified potential CII water savings of 17%, with possible larger reductions ifopportunities involving reuse and/or recycling were implemented. WUE surveys alsodetermined the range of water efficiency for cooling towers and reverse osmosis ultra purewater production equipment within the District, and evaluated the relative water efficiencyperformance of several water conservation, reuse and recycling opportunities alreadyimplemented by some District CII customers. This information will be used to recommendfuture improvements at other plants. This paper provides a case study of one of theparticipants in ACWD's IWUE program, New United Motors Manufacturing, Inc.(NUMMI), and how they used the information and recommendations in their surveyreport.NUMMI, a General Motors-Toyota partnership, is the largest U.S. manufacturer of ToyotaCorolla cars and Toyota Tacoma trucks. The NUMMI plant sits on 90 acres with a fourmillion square foot facility, employing approximately 5,000 people. The water efficiencyefforts at NUMMI are part of a Japanese production method called Kaizen, a system ofcontinuous improvement in finding and eliminating waste. The Kaizen method allowedACWD to work with NUMMI in addressing four production processes, three of which account for 37% of total facility water use. This paper showcases NUMMI's IWUEsurvey, Kaizen-assisted water efficiency efforts, and the implementation ofrecommended system modifications from the IWUE survey. It also looks closely at thedramatic water savings from 1990 through 2003 and how the NUMMI and ACWDpartnership reduced NUMMI's water demand from 1,100 gallons per unit to 711 gallonsper unit, a 35 percent reduction. Includes tables, figures.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 01/11/2004 Number of Pages: 10 File Size: 1 file , 280 KB