AWWA MTC69749

This paper presents a survey of operational performance and cost data from the operation of six utilities on the western shore of Lake Michigan. These membrane filtration plants are located in Lake Forest, Illinois, and in five cities in Wisconsin including Kenosha, Manitowoc (2 different membrane systems), Racine, South Milwaukee, and Two Rivers. They all use Lake Michigan as their source water which is extremely cold (as low as 0.5ºC) with low turbidity and low TOC; yet, a surge in turbidity (10 to 20 times the average) can take place based on wind strength and direction. Despite utilizing common source water, these plants represent a diverse array of membrane treatment strategies that include microfiltration and ultrafiltration pore size, pressure and submerged configurations, a range of pretreatment strategies, and a range of treatment capacity from 4 to 50 million gallons per day. These systems also cover a range in membrane technologies, including some of the earliest large-scale membrane filtration systems in Kenosha and Manitowoc, as well as the most recent submerged membrane technology at the new Manitowoc treatment plant. This paper compares the operational costs of the systems, including labor, power, chemicals, membrane replacement, residuals, and miscellaneous costs, and highlights the impacts of pretreatment and membrane systems. This comparison provides information for benchmarking membrane plants and highlights important similarities and differences that can be used for planning and budgeting. Included is a comparison between the costs of the membrane plants with the conventional plants that they replaced. Includes abstract only.