On January 3rd, 2017, On behalf of the Water Environment Federation (WEF), the president of the Central Coast WateReuse Chapter, Ben Fine, presented the City of San Luis Obispo Utilities Department with the “Utility of the Future-Today” recognition flag. The program recognizes utilities throughout the nation that promote smarter, more efficient operations, and assists with progression to full resource recovery with enhance productivity, sustainability, and resiliency.
In addition to presenting the recognition, the WRRF Project Team presented City Council with an update on the Project and ask them to authorize an amendment for the Design Engineer to incorporate changes that have been made to the Project since the Facilities Plan was adopted (July 2015). The WRRF Project Team recently completed 30% design on the Project and have incorporated the following changes to help fine tune certain aspects of the Project:
Secondary treatment process: after careful consideration and discussion, the WRRF Project Team chose to change to a membrane based process. This alternative process would provide higher quality effluent that would significantly reduce the sizing of the downstream ultra-violet (UV) process (by half!). This will also provide the City with more flexibility to pursue potable reuse options in the future.
Water Resource Center: the Water Resource Center will now include more staff from the Utilities Department and will open up space, that would otherwise be occupied, at the City Corporation Yard for other Departments that need to expand.