Like many municipalities, Dalton Utilities in Georgia was operating an aging Water Treatment Plant (WTP) that needed improvements in multiple areas. The original construction of the V.D. Parrott Jr. Water Treatment Plant date back to 1963 with the last improvements made over 25 years ago, with many components still dating back to the original construction.
In 2015 Barge Design Solutions started to develop a capital improvement plan for Dalton’s largest WTP which included an evaluation of the existing facility components and alternate treatment processes. Ultrafiltration membranes were selected to replace the 50-year-old existing mixed media technology.
After a competitive preselection process, in February 2018 Veolia was selected by Dalton Utilities and Barge Design Solutions to provide the pressurized ZeeWeed 1500 ultrafiltration membrane system which would further improve the water quality at the WTP. The ZeeWeed 1500 membrane is an outside-in feed, hollow-fiber, PVDF ultrafilter used for drinking water treatment. Engineering of the membrane system was completed and in August 2019, Dalton Utilities broke ground with 3D Enterprises on the 40 MGD membrane filtration upgrade project at the WTP.
At the WTP, raw water from the Conasauga River is pumped to the pretreatment process by raw water feed pumps. Following pH adjustment, oxidant addition for iron and manganese removal, and addition of an aluminum-based coagulant for organics removal, the feedwater passes through a settling process. The settled water is delivered to the membrane trains through fine screens via feed pumps for filtration. The filtered water from the membrane trains collects in a common permeate header and is delivered to the clearwell by gravity. Post-treatment chemicals are added prior to discharge to the clearwell and distribution system.
In January 2021, Veolia began the commissioning of sixteen (16) ZeeWeed 1500 membrane trains which produce a maximum permeate daily net capacity of
40 MGD when operating at ≥95% recovery and at a minimum design temperature of 4°C. The membrane design is such that the design capacity can be achieved with one train offline for any type of chemical cleaning or membrane integrity test.
FIgure 1: ZeeWeed* 1500 Ultrafiltration (UF) Membranes
Result
A 30-day Operation Test was performed in July and August 2021 with average treated flows of 23 MGD. The membrane system operated continuously under design operating conditions and provided excellent treated water quality. The test successfully met all plant flow demands and demonstrated all the membrane design requirements (capacity, quality, chemical internal and use, membrane integrity).
The completion of the project provides the plant with a finished water production of 40 MGD, with provisions to expand the new membrane facilities to the original plant capacity of 50 MGD by the addition of two ZeeWeed 1500 membrane trains.
This facility is the largest membrane filtration water plant in Georgia, the second largest in the Southeast, and one of the top 10 such facilities in the US.
Veolia has a long history of working with both established facilities and new construction. Our deep expertise in these solutions coupled with the speed at delivering project management, installation, and testing made for a successful delivery.
