Congratulations to the City of Fargo’s Water Treatment Plant staff for two noteworthy awards! Attendees of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) Annual Conference and Expo selected Fargo’s tap water as one of three People’s Choice Taste Test Winner in June. Fargo’s H2O took home the best tasting water title within the State of North Dakota in 2022 and 2023. This spring, Fargo also received the Facility of the Year award from the 2024 Membrane Technology Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida. The American Membrane Technology Association (AMTA) and AWWA host the conference each year. The national award recognizes an outstanding facility that uses membrane technology with high efficiency in an environmentally friendly approach.
The Fargo Membrane Water Treatment Plant was commissioned in 2018 and has capacity to produce 15 million gallons per day (mgd) of drinking water. It was designed and constructed to meet future water demands and to address elevated sulfate concentrations in the source water from the Sheyenne and Red Rivers. The plant’s technology includes ultrafiltration (UF) membranes, reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, instrumentation for continuous monitoring of water quality, and designed efficiencies for chemical usage and treatment costs.
Prior to the Fargo Membrane Water Treatment Plant being designed and built, AE2S and Black & Veatch (B&V) completed a yearlong pilot study to thoroughly investigate the changing water quality of the Red and Sheyenne Rivers over all four seasons because of the wide temperature and water quality fluctuations experienced in the region. The RO pilot study verified that a robust and stable pretreatment process is critical to membrane performance.
An extensive pretreatment optimization study was performed during the pilot study to identify the appropriate coagulant, coagulant dose, coagulation pH, and mixing energy to improve both the microfiltration/ultrafiltration (MF/UF) membrane and RO operations. The optimization study provided the City with a matrix to determine the most cost-efficient way to operate the pretreatment unit in the future to meet treatment objectives.
The yearlong pilot study proved that RO technology is feasible to reduce sulfate concentrations to acceptable levels in the City’s finished water, and the results of the study were incorporated into the design of the Fargo Water Treatment Plant’s extensive expansion project, which increased its treatment capacity from 30 mgd to 45 mgd through the addition of the 15 mgd membrane treatment facility. The RO process follows pretreatment and membrane filtration; the two processes that help condition the water for the efficient operation of the RO process. Finally, the treated water is disinfected before blending with the treated water from the existing 30 mgd lime softening conventional WTP.
The annual Facility of the Year Award is based on several criteria, including demonstration of high efficiency that conserves energy or water, novel challenges or concepts, operational compliance, and public and educational outreach. Fargo was selected in favor of five other systems – two from California, and one each from Texas, Florida, and Mississippi!
