The Water Quality Improvement Center (WQIC) is a facility located on the site of the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalting plant, the Yuma Desalting Plant, near Yuma, AZ. The WQIC provides the means to coordinate the water quality research and field-testing efforts of government, academia, and private industry to efficiently advance such research and make it more cost-effective and practical. Capable of desalting up to one million gallons per day, the WQIC is a cornerstone of the National Centers for Water Treatment Technology initiated by the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Water Research Institute.

How Does it Benefit Industry?

The WQIC benefits society and industry in several ways by:

• providing a site for hands-on training of personnel in water treatment and desalting-plant operations,

• enabling the investigation and development of new and improved water-treatment technologies, and

• accelerating the transfer of technology to private industry by making pilot-scale water research more feasible.

Who Can Use the WQIC?

Federal and state agencies, desalting researchers, universities, water treatment companies, municipalities, private industry, and foreign entities may use the WQIC to perform research on water quality technology. Researchers who want to test equipment or investigate processes at the WQIC will be able to do so via a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA).

Role of the WQIC

Many communities in the United States and around the world rely on water supplies containing high levels of salts and other contaminants that may present health risks. The WQIC plays an important role in uniting the nation’s efforts to advance the science and engineering of water purification technologies.

WQIC Facilities include:

• Physical facilities such as grit sedimentation, water softening, rapid mixing, flocculation, clarification, sludge removal, and dual or multi-media filtration.

• Chemical processes for disinfection, pH adjustment, anti-scaling, and membrane rejuvenation. Customers may supply other chemical processes for use/testing at the WQIC.

• Membrane processes for testing reverse-osmosis microfiltration, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration. Customer may supply other processes for use/testing at the WQIC.

• One 600-gpm and two 50-gpm process trains with a 600-gpm connection to an on-site groundwater well where a range of brackish feedwater salinities can be made.

• Fully instrumented processes which feature a networked Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition computer system with Internet access.

• Fully furnished office facilities.

WQIC Services include:

• Experienced facility operators available 24 hours a day.

• Engineering and technical staff with expertise in water-treatment processes and instrumentation.

• Fully staffed water laboratory licensed by the State of Arizona that participates in the U.S. Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Environmental Resources Associates quality control programs.

• Existing discharge and waste permits.

• Utilities including telephone, fax, and computer data transfer lines.

Contact: Paul McAleese at (520) 343-8229