Tularosa Basin National Desalination Research and Demonstration Center
Facility Study

Facility Study Status Presentation to Congressional Staff - Mike Hightower
Mike gave an overview of the presentation requested by Sen. Domenici's staff for their visit to Sandia on March 25. The presentation gave an overview of the project, the participants, the goals and objectives of the feasibility study, the progress to date, and the proposed schedule for neat-term activities. The staff asked that we continue to keep them informed of the project status and that they would develop times for Sandia and the USBR to jointly brief them over the next several months on the project progress.

The purpose of the presentation was to keep members of the Executive Committee aware of the outreach activities underway and the information that is being presented. Many of the committee members have contact with the same congressional staffers and it is important that a common vision and mission of the research center be presented. The Executive Committee agreed that it was important to keep the congressional staffs informed of our progress. The committee generally agreed with the information in the presentation and agreed that it conveyed the right focus of the projected utility of the facility and the attributes and advantages of a Tularosa Basin desalination research location.

Mike also mentioned that he and Tom Jennings would be giving a similar feasibility study update at the American Membrane Technology Association regional meeting in El Paso in May.

Facility 30% Design Review - Livingston & Associates
Mike turned the remainder of the meeting over to Eddie Livingston, the consultant selected to conduct the feasibility study. Eddie introduced Ian Watson who is helping with the feasibility study and has experience designing over 80 desalination plants world wide. 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 Executive Committee decided to break the presentation up into three parts to insure time to address each of the major design issue. The three parts were site location evaluation, facility design concept evaluation, and site layout and brine disposal option evaluation. Each of these three major areas was discussed individually.

Site Location Evaluation and Discussions
Eddie gave a presentation on the hydrology of the Tularosa Basin and the water quality contours and issues. He has been looking at five sites.

All the southern sites have predominately calcium sulfate water, which is the major inland desal concern. The southern and western sites have more water variability and are closer to poorer quality waters. (Even though this sounds crazy, for this facility we would like to have water quality that ranges from 2,000 -15,000 ppm TDS and able to use water of up to 100,000 ppm TDS.)

Based on the above information and following discussions of the various issues for each site, he Executive Committee ranked the sites the following way.

First: Site 3 - South side of Alamogordo
Available city facilities, probable good land deal, water rights, high variability water, water recycle line, high traffic flow

Second: State land south of Alamogordo on White Sands highway
High water variability, probably good land deal with the state, high traffic flow

Third: Private land south of Alamogrodo on White Sands highway
High water variability, high traffic flow, but probably high land costs

Fourth: Land further southwest and closer to Holloman AFB
Similar to 3rd ranked site but closer to HAFB, which may have landing issues if waterfowl take up residence in evaporation ponds

Fifth: Site 1- Location about 15 miles north of Alamogordo
Adjacent to proposed city desal facility, water quality probably too good, out of the way for tourists

Facility Floor Plan and Layout Discussions
Eddie handed out a conceptual design for the floor plan for the facility. The highlights were:

Discussions centered on additions and things to consider including the following general consensus items:

Facility Site Layout Discussions
Eddie handed out a conceptual site plan and layout. The general plan will require about 20 acres. Five acres will be needed for the facility building, parking, and service roads, larger scale testing areas, and landscaping. About 5 acres were set aside for evaporation ponds and included several different sizes for concentrate treatment and utilization evaluation. Two acres were set aside for renewable energy research applications and testing. This was coordinated with Jim Pacheco of Sandia to match the layout Sandia uses for solar energy system pilot testing. About two acres were set aside for agricultural disposal and wetlands disposal application evaluations. Five acres were left for future expansion and larger scale testing.

General comments and discussion included the following considerations:

NEPA Discussions - Del Holz
Tom Jennings introduced Del Holz as the USBR Denver manager of resource management and planning. We want to include Del in all our discussions so that NEPA considerations are conducted in conjunction with the recommendation of a site and site plan. Del was interested in previous NEPA work at each of the sites and will schedule a tour of the top sites in conjunction with the next meeting. This is being done in order to enable us to move forward with construction of the facility by having the NEPA and a design/build document completed by the end of the fiscal year.

Presentation by the City of Alamogordo - Pat McCourt
Mike Hightower introduced Pat McCourt, the City Manager of Alamogordo. Pat introduced two city commissioners that came with him; Steve Easley, and Ron Griggs. All three stated that the City of Alamogordo is very interested in the research facility being located within the Alamogordo city limits. They mentioned the potential advantages of the site previously discussed as ranking at the top of our evaluation and that they were willing to work with the committee to develop a mutually beneficial plan for buying or leasing the identified property.

The committee agreed to continue to pursue the evaluation of that property and discuss options for acquiring the property for construction of the desalination research center. We also agreed to keep the commissioners informed of the progress of our activities.

Next Steps
There was general consensus from the meeting participants that the design was moving along well. From the meeting Eddie had several sets of comments and general consensus of ways to move forward.