Marcus G. Daniels wrote:
> Raymond Parks wrote:
>> Um, I'm confused by what appears to be a non sequitur.
>>
> Are the microfiltration/reverse osmosis/UV treatment/Hydrogen Peroxide
> technologies cheaper for large installations?
> As far as I understand, OC purifies the sewage to quality of distilled
> water (using above), and then pump it back into their aquifiers.
> 
> http://www.gwrsystem.com
>> The latest improvement to the wastewater treatment plant cost $70 million.
>> Albuquerque has about 25% of New Mexico's population (about 1/3 of
>> New Mexico's population live in the ABQ metro area).
> Ok, so ABQ is spending about $140 per person on that plant ($70 million
> for 500,000 people).   OC is spending $96 per person on theirs ($480
> million for 5 million people).    It seems to me that the more
> sophisticated OC technology is cheaper.   Presumably there are economies
> of scale, but $70 million is still a big chunk of change.

   The $70 million was just for the systems to resolve nitrogen 
contamination, as I understand the ABQ web-site.  I couldn't find a 
single line item in the ABQ budget for wastewater treatment - it's 
subsumed into the water supply system budget.  ABQ is actually under 
greater constraint than OC - they don't have reservations downstream 
that have very high standards of clean water.

   I don't know which techniques ABQ uses - but one of the 
considerations should be the energy cost of the treatment method.

-- 
Ray Parks                   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Consilient Heuristician     Voice:505-844-4024
ATA Department              Mobile:505-238-9359
http://www.sandia.gov/scada Fax:505-844-9641
http://www.sandia.gov/idart Pager:800-690-5288


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