July 25, 2006

 

California Water Service Group (NYSE: CWT) subsidiary New Mexico Water Service Company recently hosted a dedication ceremony to commemorate the completion of the first wastewater retrofit project of its kind at the company’s Rio Del Oro Wastewater Treatment Facility.

"To our knowledge, nobody has ever retrofitted a wastewater plant with Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) microfiltration technology while keeping the plant fully operational, and we’re pleased to report that we did it while meeting all water quality standards for effluent," said general manager Paul Risso.

The project is beneficial because it increases the plant’s treatment capacity and creates a higher quality output without increasing the plant’s footprint. The retrofit project is also estimated to cost approximately half as much as using traditional technology.

New Mexico Water Service Company partnered with Advanced Process Technologies, Enviroquip, Inc., and Kubota to complete the project.

“Now that we have demonstrated that this technology can be installed on a fully operational wastewater plant, other wastewater treatment operations will likely follow our lead. We believe others will see the value in this approach and will want to cut costs, improve wastewater discharge quality, and maintain the smallest footprint possible, as we have here,” Risso said.

Elected officials, community leaders, and company partners toured the facility after a dedication ceremony presented by Risso and president and chief executive officer Peter C. Nelson.