AWWA ACE59967

This paper reviews the overall regulatory process and key regulatory aspects in the case history of a 60 MGD submerged ultrafiltration membrane facility that is under construction in Racine, Wisconsin. In particular, the paper highlights a novel approach to providing system redundancy with operational strategies rather than capital expenditure in a manner tailored to the selected membrane technology. The general discussion of these regulatory topics and the specific case history at Racine touches on several important issues not addressed prescriptively, if at all, in the US Environmental Protection Agency Draft Membrane Filtration Guidance Manual (June 2003). Thus, this review provides useful insights for the industry as it works towards a coherent regulatory strategy for using membranes in water treatment applications. In addition, these issues can have significant capital cost implications. The novel regulatory approaches employed at Racine contributed to a total capital cost of less than $0.35 per gallon of capacity, which is quite favorable in comparison to other projects of similar size and scope. Includes tables, figure.