Page 2 - Compressed Air Best Practices

The Salinas Valley of California, southeast
of San Francisco, is referred to as the “salad
bowl of the world” because of its abundance
of such crops as lettuce, broccoli, and
peppers. And like many agricultural areas
in California, the water supply is under
stress from high usage, rising population,
and changing weather patterns. Therefore,
every water conservation effort in the valley
contributes to the overall health of the vitally
important agriculture industry.
Recently the capacity of the Las Palmas,
California, waste water treatment operations
were expanded by combining two plants and
making one centralized filtration center. The
new center expanded the flow capacity from
162,000 Gallons per Day (GPD) combined
to 288,000 GPD when the manually controlled
reclaimed water operations were updated
to a state-of-the-art automated system.
Reclaimed water from the plant irrigates local
community green spaces. The new automated
system ensures lower labor costs, consistent
quality, and peak efficiency in the process
of reclaiming waste water for irrigation. And
through this water conservation process the
Las Palmas facility contributes to the overall
sustainability of Salinas Valley agriculture
through water reuse.
To facilitate an effective transition from last
generation to next generation technology,
a turnkey/scalable system was sourced from
Festo. under the direction of general contractor
ERS Industrial Services, Fremont, California.
Plant #1 Operated at Lower Capacity
Than Required by Today’s Demands
Plant #1, with its capacity of 72,000 GPD,
was built in 1989 in Salinas to reclaim water
from the nearby Las Palmas Ranch residential
development. In 1996, Plant #2 with a capacity
of 90,000 GPD was built to accommodate
soaring population growth. That growth
“
One of the process innovations we thought offered the highest value
was to find an automation supplier with the experience and expertise
to design and deliver a complete turnkey control solution.”
— Nik Radonich, Project Engineer, ERS
Advanced Automation Lowers
Labor Cost and Improves Performance
at the Las Palmas, California Wastewater Treatment Plant
By Nate Ventress, Process Automation Specialist, Western Region, Festo
20 airbestpractices.com