Tularosa Basin National Desalination Research and Demonstration Center

Tularosa Basin National Desalination Research and Demonstration Center
Facility Study

Conference Call Minutes
March 20, 2002

Participants
Kevin Price - USBR/Denver
Tom Jennings - USBR/Denver
Frank Leitz - USBR/Denver
Mike Landis - USBR/El Paso
Bobby Creel - NM WRRI
Eddie Livingston - Livingston & Assoc.
Carlos Padilla - Phoenix
Mark Rucker - USBR/Abq
Nancy Umbright - USBR/Abq
Mike Norris - USBR/Yuma WQIC
Mike Hightower - Sandia National Laboratory
Jim Pacheco - Sandia National Laboratory
Karl Wood - NM WRRI
Rick Huff - USGS/Las Cruces

Welcome/Goals and Objectives- Mike Hightower
Mike welcomed members of the Executive Committee (EC) to the conference call update for the Tularosa Basin Desalination Research Center - Facility Study. The goals and objectives of the conference call were identified and include:

  • Update on USBR discussions with western water utilities,
  • Update on USBR and Sandia funding,
  • Update on consulting engineers activities,
  • Discuss format for 30% design review in April

    USBR Recent Interactions with Water Utilities - Tom Jennings
    Tom discussed a meeting with Mike Gritzuk of the City of Phoenix and the head of the Tri-state Salinity Commission (includes AZ, CA, and NV) in Albuquerque at Sandia on March 12. The meeting was to discuss technology roadmapping efforts and inviting the Tri-state Salinity Commission to participate. At the meeting Mike was briefed on the Tularosa Basin Feasibility Study and was invited to participate. He was anxious to do so and identified several people from his staff from Phoenix who will be participating with the Executive Committee. Mike suggested that the cities of Tucson and Las Vegas may also want to participate and he would contact them and inform them of this activity. This should help increase regional support for this project. Carlos Padilla participated in the conference call from Phoenix.

    Update on Funding - Mike Hightower
    Mike funding issues. Sandia has received the funding from the USBR and had competed contracts for all the technical support for the feasibility study as identified at the initial meeting, including contracting with the consultant and technical support for the group and the USBR from WRRI. Issues of NEPA and other technical support as discussed at the January meeting are being considered but not all discussions and contracting have been completed.

    Facility Study Progress - Eddie Livingston
    Eddie gave a lengthy overview of his activities on the project since the January meeting. Eddie has been working with the City of Alamogordo on the development of a desal facility and has extensive knowledge about the water resources of the Tularosa Basin and desal research. The highlights of his presentation include:

  • He toured the Yuma facility hosted by Mike Norris in early March to detail lessons learned from that facility design,
  • They are looking at 5 locations in the Alamogordo area with easy access and high visibility, each area is about 10-15 acres, some parcels are city owned and could be donated for the facility,
  • They are looking at 3 floor plans of 6,000 - 9,000 square feet,
  • Facility features include: 4-6 test bays, control room, water lab, research offices, lunch room, conference room, resource/education room, tour and operations viewing areas,
  • Test areas to be open with below grade piping for easy access and flexibility,
  • Multiple well feed system and pipelines for multiple water quality and chemistries,
  • Considering use of RO system for final water treatment to enable quality control of all treated water
  • Ancillary facilities include shop and chemical storage, exterior pads for large scake and renewable energy applications,
  • Including evaporation pond areas for brine disposal research and injection wells.

    Eddie will be taking a trip to Sandia and hosted by Jim Pacheco to review several Sandia layouts for solar and wind energy system testing and evaluation.

    WRRI Activities - Bobby Creel
    Bobby mentioned that the WRRI will be setting up a website so that all this information will be available to the public. The website should be up by June after a few upgrades of their system are completed.

    Next Meeting
    The next meeting will be 30% design review of the proposed Tularosa Basin National Desalination Research Center. The meeting has been scheduled for Friday April 12th at the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute on the campus of New Mexico State University.

    The format will be presentations by Eddie on the options and floor plans being evaluated and then discussions by participants on items to retain for further refinement for the 60% and 90% design reviews. These reviews will be scheduled for the end of May and end of June respectively.