Full Description

The Cutbank Rural Water Utility is a rural public utility incorporated under theprovincial laws of Saskatchewan. As a result of amendments to the RuralMunicipalities Act of Saskatchewan in 1992, it became possible for ruralresidents and their local governments to organize relatively large groups(several hundred users) for common water delivery systems. With this largerclient base and better financing alternatives came a greater degree of interestin centralized water treatment processes. Prior to these changes, rural residentsin the Canadian prairie have relied on private water systems. In this particularinstance, the goal was the application of an innovative membrane treatmenttechnology for surface water treatment in Saskatchewan and ultimately transferthis knowledge to other rural clients and to the private sector. The CutbankRural Water Authority's water source is Lake Diefenbaker, the largest man-madelake on the Canadian prairies, located on the South Saskatchewan River in thesemi-arid grasslands of Saskatchewan. The primary component of the reservoirrecharge is spring snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains in the adjoining province ofAlberta. The water quality insofar as total dissolved solids is superior tovirtually every other surface water body or aquifer in the southern portion ofthe province. Membrane filtration was originally raised as a possible option byone of the water treatment distributors. At that time in Saskatchewan there wereno surface water-based membrane plants either operational or under consideration.Four pressure-driven membrane processes (reverse osmosis, nanofiltration,ultrafiltration and microfiltration) were considered as potential options.Proposals were sought from two equipment suppliers who had extensive experiencewith water treatment processes in western Canada. One proposal was for anultrafiltration process while the second was for nanofiltration. Thenanofiltration option was chosen on the basis of price, references and designapproach. This paper discusses the design of the nanofiltration plant and theoperational experiences over the past several years. Lessons learned, especiallywith respect to the need for pretreatment are presented. Includes 8 references, figures.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 05/01/2001 Number of Pages: 17 File Size: 1 file , 610 KB