World’s Largest Inland Desalination Plant in El Paso, Texas Goes Online

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) -- The jointly owned desalination plant between El Paso Water Utilities (El Paso, Texas) and U.S. Army/Fort Bliss (El Paso, Texas) has completed construction of the world’s largest inland water desalination plant in El Paso, Texas, located at 10751 Montana Avenue. The $87 million desalination plant opened for business on Wednesday, August 8, 2007 and is expected to supply this desert city with water for 50 years. For details see related September 12, 2005 article - El Paso Water Utilities Breaks Ground on World's Largest Inland Water Desalination Plant.

Western Summit Constructors, Incorporated (Denver, Colorado), the general contractor, broke ground on this project on August 31, 2005. CDM, Incorporated (Cambridge, Massachusetts) has also worked on this project as the engineering contractor. These two companies have worked many months on completing the project.

The desalination plant is dedicated and named after Texas’ senior U.S. senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Kay Bailey Hutchinson helped secure $29 million in federal money for the plant. The plant will use reverse osmosis technology to treat brackish, or salty, groundwater pulled from hundreds of feet below the ground, where the supply was considered worthless before the plant was built. A series of wells and more than two dozen miles of pipeline will connect the plant to the aquifer, which sits under Fort Bliss.

The desalination plant is planned to increase El Paso’s fresh water production by 25 percent. This means that more than 160,000 households, 10,000 businesses and 18,000 troops and their families will receive water from the plant. Not only is this plant going to be able to produce 27.5 million gallons of drinking water daily, when it is at full capacity, but it also helped save Fort Bliss, after Army officials moved a cavalry regiment to Colorado based on reports that El Paso faced a water shortage. Fort Bliss is scheduled to receive 20,000 soldiers by 2011 and also will begin studying additional staffing requirements.

Industrial Info first reported this project in November 2002. El Paso’s plant has attracted industry-wide attention due to its inland location and innovative method of concentrate disposal.

View Plant Profile – 1059554
View Project Report - 01009193

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