The Department of Natural Resources and Parks for King County, Washington, has awarded GE Water & Process Technologies, a unit of General Electric Company the Green Globe Award for outstanding achievement in the category of Leader in Reclaimed Water. The biennial Green Globe Award is King County’s highest honor for businesses, organizations and individuals that foster environmental stewardship by protecting the environment, managing natural resources and benefiting the community.
“GE Water & Process Technologies is at the forefront of providing 21st century systems that will help us do an even better job at protecting public health and our precious waterways,” said King County Executive Ron Sims. “This technology will turn wastewater into a valuable resource that will help us adapt to the expected negative impacts of global warming by providing a drought-proof water supply for irrigation, industry and other uses.
King County is currently building two new wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) that will incorporate GE’s ZeeWeed Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) technology. The Brightwater WWTP will be capable of treating up to 36 million gallons of wastewater per day and will be North America’s largest operating MBR when it is completed in 2010. The Carnation WWTP is scheduled to start up in 2008, and will provide up to 400,000 gallons per day of reclaimed water for a pioneering wetland restoration project in partnership with Ducks Unlimited.
“We are honored to receive the Green Globe Award and to be a part of the inspiring water reclamation initiatives that are occurring in King County,” said Paul Schuler, Western Municipal Sales Leader, who accepted the award on behalf of GE Water & Process Technologies. “The Green Globe Award confirms GE’s conviction to its ecomagination initiative, which aims to bring advanced technologies to market that address our most pressing environmental needs, such as water scarcity. We are very proud to contribute to this forward-thinking project in King County.”
“The Green Globe Award acknowledges our confidence in the ability of ZeeWeed MBR to help King County achieve its environmental objectives,” said Bob Bucher, Project Engineer, King County. “We are excited about the many environmental rewards that this technology brings such as protecting the sensitive Puget Sound ecosystem and providing a drought-proof water supply to industry and irrigators.”
In addition to the Brightwater and Carnation MBR plants, King County is also building a pipeline, called The Brightwater Backbone, which will utilize gravity to transport up to 7 MGD of reclaimed water throughout the region. As reclaimed water use increases, the pipe capacity can be expanded to 21 MGD with the addition of pumps. The modular MBR process can also accommodate expansion and will enable the Brightwater WWTP to expand to an ultimate capacity of 54 MGD as wastewater treatment needs increase.
