The Advanced Purified Water Facility will take highly treated effluent water from the Reno-Stead Water Reclamation Facility and put it through a multi-step, redundant process. This includes ozonation, biological carbon filtration, ultraviolet disinfection, and numerous other steps. Once treated, the water will be injected into an outlying aquifer at American Flat, north of Stead Airport. Storage in the groundwater aquifer adds a natural environmental buffer and offers additional water-quality benefits.
Initially, the water will be used for irrigation at American Flat Farm, but eventually it will be used to serve homes and business with a drought-proof supply of extremely high-quality water.
“The new facility will produce two million gallons a day,” Teel added. “That’s enough water for about 4,500 homes. So basically, we’ll be taking a resource that was being discarded and using it to extend the resilience and sustainability of our regional water resources.”
With almost a decade of research, feasibility studies, and testing already complete, the OneWater Nevada team is now in the design process for the Advanced Purified Water Facility with the expectation of breaking ground on the project in the fall of 2024. Construction should last about two years followed by several years of advanced-treatment testing, ground-water injection, irrigation use, and water-quality monitoring.
An additional project benefit is the opportunity for public education both during and after construction of the Advanced Purified Water Facility. As the eventual end users of A+ Advanced Purified Water, community members will want to learn about the technology and the quality of the water it produces. For now, the OneWater Nevada team will continue to hold public presentations and make educational resources available online. Once the Advanced Purified Water Facility opens, it will offer a specially designed Public Education Center where students and adults can see first-hand how advanced treatment technology will benefit our community for generations to come.