WorldwideNews: AMERICAS

Guayaquil waterworks awards TAM contract

The Guayaquil Potable Water and Sewage Company (ECAPAG), the municipal-based waterworks authority of Guayaquil, Ecuador, awarded TAMS a contract to supervise the rehabilitation and extension of the city's water supply system. Work on this US$ 10 million project already began and will be completed by late 2003. TAMS is an Earth Tech company, based in Long Beach, California USA.

The project includes the rehabilitation of the city's water system intake works, pumping plants and treatment plant, and the installation and connection of pipes to the existing network; closure of obsolete networks; pipe leak work and 31,000 house connections.

Guayaquil has a population of 2.5 million and is considered the country's financial, commercial and industrial hub. "Guayaquil's growing population put a serious strain on existing infrastructure, as well as the water providers," said Diane C. Creel, president of Earth Tech. "Many areas have been left with little access to potable water and deficient sanitary conditions." Although 75% of households in Guayaquil have access to piped water, ECAPAG has only 240,000 registered residential and industrial users in the city.

Ionics upgrades Foss Reservoir desalination plant in Midwest

The Foss Reservoir Master Conservancy District in Western Oklahoma will replace its electrodialysis (ED) membrane-based system with the Ionics' newest version of electrodialysis reversal (EDR) system, the EDR 2020® system, under a US$ 5.6 million contract. Thirty years ago Ionics built the Foss Reservoir desalination plant to produce fresh drinking water from brackish water sources on a daily basis for up to 15,000 people in the surrounding communities of Clinton, Cordell, Hobart and Bessie, Oklahoma. The water at Foss Reservoir is typical of many brackish waters found in Midwestern US states.

The EDR 2020 will convert the reservoir's high salinity, high calcium sulphate brackish surface water into fresh drinking water. Replacing the existing ED system with the new EDR system will increase water production at the reservoir from three million gallons per day to 4.5 million gallons per day to meet the area's increasing potable water needs. In addition, the EDR system will reduce operating and maintenance costs and integrate with the reservoir's existing pretreatment system.

Degussa invests in Latin America

Degussa's Bleaching and Water Chemicals Business Unit began operating its new manufacturing facility in Americana, Brazil on 15 November, to supply chemicals for the water treatment, paper and mining industries. Completed in just nine months for ¤5 million, the facility has an annual production capacity of about 7,000 tons.

"Degussa's strategy is to focus on attractive international markets that are experiencing above-average growth - like Latin America, a region with tremendous potential for the water treatment and paper industries. At the same time, our new investment in Americana is another milestone in our on-going effort to strengthen our position in Brazil's special chemical market," explained Utz-Hellmuth Felcht, chairman of Degussa's Executive Board.

Brazil plays a central role in Degussa's Latin American strategy. Despite the region's current economic difficulties, Degussa employs 600 people in Brazil and achieved sales volume of g 210 million in 2010, compared with g196 million in 2000.

Americana is the second production facility Degussa's Bleaching & Water Chemicals Business Unit opened in Brazil.

Closer to its headquarters in Krefeld, Germany, Degussa completed construction on its expanded production facility for water treatment products. The company invested g 30 million to increase production capacity by 15,000 tons per year to produce the raw materials needed to manufacture chemicals, particularly Praestol® flocculants, used to treat wastewater.

Gold Bar converts weed bed to flourishing lake

Zenon's membrane technology will treat wastewater from Edmonton's Gold Bar wastewater treatment plant for reuse in a dry weed-filled pond in Gold Bar Park. The treated water will also be used as internal recycle water in the plant with the city looking to expand use to include local irrigation.

The Gold Bar wastewater treatment plant is located on the outskirts of Edmonton along the south shore of the North Saskatchewan River, adjacent to two underused city parks. Currently, the facility treats nearly 100,000 megalitres of wastewater every day. In September, the city council decided to upgrade and modernise the existing plant using membrane technology. They purchased Zenon's membrane bioreactor (MBR) system as the initial demonstration unit to evaluate a larger full-scale system.

One of the project's main objectives will be to revitalise the pond in Gold Bar Park, which has turned into a weed bed. The new created lake is being filled with tap water this fall, and will be filled with membrane-filtered water in late 2003. The Zenon demonstration plant is scheduled to be on line by spring 2003. Zenon is based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.

FIELD NOTES

Bolivia: The Misicuni Company of Bolivia selected TAMS, an Earth Tech company based in Long Beach, California, USA, to design the Misicuni Dam in the country's Tunari mountain range as part of the Misicuni Multipurpose Project. Design work on the US$ 40 million dam project already began with construction slated for 2004.

Cochabamba is the third largest city in Bolivia with more than 800,000 people. Because the area receives very low rainfall, Cochabamba has experienced chronic water shortages for several decades reducing the standard of living and worsening health conditions. Currently more than 50% of the region's population do not have direct access to potable water.

The US$ 354 million Misicuni Multipurpose project consists of conveying waters from the northern slope of the Tunari Mountain range, where rainfall is considerably higher than in the Cochabamba Valley, through a 20-km tunnel connecting the Misicuni reservoir to the town of Cochabamba. When the dam is fully developed, the project will provide a guaranteed water yield of about 6.6 m3/second. This will meet the growing potable water needs of the Cochabamba metropolitan area for the next 30 years.

Canada: The City of Kamloops, British Columbia awarded Zenon a US$ 20 million contract to supply its latest generation ZeeWeed® membrane technology for a new drinking water plant to be built in Kamloops. The city approved construction of the new plant for the community that will treat up to 42 million gallons of water per day. Once completed in 2005, the Kamloops facility will become Canada's largest ZeeWeed® plant.

Panama: Biwater Plc subsidiary Aguas de Panama started operating its US$ 25 million Laguna Alta bulk drinking water plant, capable of supplying some 20 million gallons per day to 350,000 residents in Panama. The Laguna Alta plant is the first design-build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) project in Panama's drinking water sector and will serve the residents of the La Chorrera, Arraijan and Capira areas, west of the Panama Canal.

Laguna Alta will supply a minimum of 15 million gallons per day for the first three years of the 30-year concession, and 20 million gallons per day for the remaining 27 years.

USA: American Cast Iron Pipe Company (ACIPCO) signed a contract with the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) in Kuwait to supply 52 km of 1200-mm ductile iron pipe for Subiya. ACIPCO's contract resulted from tenders submitted to the MEW for the Subiya Water Complex.

ACIPCO is supplying about 25% of the total water pipeline to be installed for the project. It will be used in the first phase of a US$ 500 million project that will transport distilled water from a new power plant on the north side of Kuwait Bay. This water will be blended with brackish groundwater and well water, and treated to meet Kuwait drinking water standards. Some 122 mgd of drinking water will be delivered to end users in Kuwait after construction of the blending facility, storage facility, pumping stations and pipeline.