Company Name: Suez

Location: Southern California, USA

Public-private partnership for water that is fit-for-purpose

In Southern California, where industries have suffered from water supply disruptions due to severe drought, SUEZ and the West Basin Municipal Water District are working together on an innovative technology to recycle wastewater and produce five types of reusable water treated to a level appropriate for purpose. These include tertiary water (industrial and irrigation use); nitrified water (industrial cooling towers); secondary treated wastewater purified by micro-filtration, followed by reverse osmosis (RO) and disinfection (groundwater recharge); pure RO water (refinery low-pressure boiler feed water); and ultra-pure RO water (refinery high-pressure boiler feed water). This has helped produce more than 750 million m3 of recycled water and reduce dependence on imported water from 80% to 60% in the past 20 years.