AWWA ACE54280

The Minneapolis Water Works (MWW) of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has embarked on a commercial, technical andregulatory process to develop a low-pressure membrane treatment project with ultimate capacity of 160-million gallons per day (MGD). MWW is employing a novel approach for the initial procurement of 70-MGD of membrane equipment. The development of a rigorous membrane performance testing protocol was an important component of the overall procurement process. Specifically, performance verified through pilot testing will be used as the basis for evaluation of equipment vendor bids. This paper emphasizes the performance testing components developed to address essential membrane implementation issues of accurate operational data collection, state regulatory approval, and water quality documentation. Includes tables.