The Greenspot Recharge Project includes multiple treatment process upgrades and uses the best available technology to produce over 325 million gallons, or 500 acre-feet (AFY), per year of purified water.

These upgrades, including ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet (UV) disinfection, will produce purified water that meets or exceeds all state and federal water quality standards. Once absorbed into the ground, this purified water will undergo additional, natural filtration through layers of earth as it travels northwest to existing wells. It will later be withdrawn and used throughout the Big Bear Valley.

 

How it Works: Process Descriptions

Ultrafiltration: Ultrafiltration membranes are made of bundles of hollow membrane fibers with pore sizes so small that bacteria and virus cannot pass through.

Reverse Osmosis: Reverse osmosis membranes allow water through a semi-permeable membrane using high pressure pumping. Dissolved constituents such as salts, nutrients, and metals are rejected as brine and the filtered water is essentially free of bacteria, viruses, and dissolved contaminants.

Ultraviolet Disinfection-Advanced Oxidation Process (UV-AOP): Ultraviolet Disinfection-Advanced Oxidation Process (UV-AOP) uses UV light and an oxidant to form oxidizing radicals which are capable of breaking bonds of harmful contaminants. 

Enhanced Evaporation: The brine from the secondary reverse osmosis process is pumped and sprayed over a structure with a layered high surface area design that increases the rate of evaporation. The increased evaporation rate of the enhanced evaporation system significantly reduces the area required compared to a conventional evaporation pond.

Product Water Stabilization: Product water from the treatment process requires stabilization to bring it to a neutral pH and to match the water chemistry characteristics of Big Bear’s groundwater.