Beginning in 2007, Santaquin City leaders engaged in a planning process to address concerns about wastewater treatment within the community.  This effort revealed several key challenges: a lagoon treatment system nearing capacity; a possible effluent discharge location, Utah Lake, facing increasing regulatory scrutiny over nutrient impairments; and a secondary water system that would experience summertime deficits in supply.

With this knowledge, Santaquin City proposed a visionary approach that would serve to both treat municipal wastewater and generate a new water source for irrigation within the City’s residential pressurized irrigation system. The new Santaquin Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) started up in October 2013 and is based on state of the art membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology to produce the highest quality ‘Type I’ reclaimed water. Although there are other facilities in the state of Utah producing Type I water and performing some reuse, the Santaquin WRF is the first facility in the state that stores and reuses 100 percent of its effluent in a residential secondary irrigation system. With this project, Santaquin City has established a model for sustainable water resource development in Utah and the Intermountain West.

The tour will take place on Tuesday, June 24. Lunch will be provided at noon at the Water Reclamation Facility, 1215 North Center Street in Santaquin. This joint AWWA/WEAU tour is limited to 30 people and will begin around 12:45. We will tour all of the unit processes at the WRF in addition to visiting the off-site reuse storage ponds and pressure irrigation pump station. The tour should be completed by 2:30.

AWWA YP Committee Contact: Clint Dilley | cdilley@epiceng.net | 801-955-5605

WEAU YP Committee Contact: Gary Vance | gvance@jub.com | 801-547-0393