Alternate: Greenfield Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility in Southern California Leverages State of the Art Technology to Deliver Complete Resource Recovery & Community Resilience

Overview: Formed in 1954, East Valley Water District (EVWD) provides water and wastewater services for a population of more than 100,000 across 18,000 acres in the City of Highland and portions of the City and County of San Bernardino County, CA. EVWD initiated greenfield development of the Sterling Natural Resource Center (SNRC) to provide water recycling for groundwater recharge and enhance their core mission of water production. SNRC enables EVWD to provide in-house wastewater services to ratepayers, rather than relying on neighboring agencies. SNRC was envisioned with the ultimate goal to provide community resilience through utility reliability, resource recovery, economic development, and educational partnerships. SNRC takes a holistic approach to waste recovery, providing water recycling to replenish the Bunker Hill groundwater basin, leveraging biogas from anaerobic digestion to support plant energy needs, and converting solids to Class A soil amendment. The 2.2-acre eastern portion of SNRC houses state-of-the-art process equipment, and the western lot was developed to feature a new District headquarters, community center, and public green space. EVWD partners with community organizations to host events and activities, including educational and vocational initiatives. Following October 2018 groundbreaking, construction was completed in early 2022, and commissioning is ongoing. Operations are to begin in early 2023. EVWD worked closely with stakeholders to maintain construction progress through the pandemic. Approach to Resource Recovery: The greenfield 8 MGD wastewater resource recovery facility (WRRF) is designed to provide complete resource recovery, beyond the scope of traditional wastewater treatment. Ultimately, all wastewater entering the plant is turned into beneficial products supporting facility operations and the broader community. -Wastewater: SNRC treats up to 8 MGD wastewater, using a Fibracast membrane bioreactor (MBR) with FibrePlate membranes. Recycled water is injected underground to replenish the Bunker Hill Groundwater Basin, which serves as water supply for EVWD and neighboring communities, and improve drought-resistance. -Biosolids: Solids remaining after anaerobic digestion (AD) via Anaergia's OmnivoreTM high-solids digestion technology are transported to the nearby Anaergia Rialto Bioenergy Facility (RBF) (approximately 10 miles away) for thermal processing via pyrolysis to carbon- and nutrient-rich Class A soil amendment for agricultural use in Southern California. Nutrients: Sidestream treatment is provided by Anaergia's AMR system to recover nitrogen for use in commercial fertilizer (as discussed further below) and recycle nutrients back to regional agriculture. - Energy: Biogas produced from anaerobic digestion fuels 3MW of combined heat and power (CHP) systems to create renewable energy to meet plant power and thermal demands. In addition to self-sufficiency, this improves reliability of operations and reduces operating costs and therefore burden on ratepayers. -High-strength waste (HSW): SNRC receives up to 130,000 gallons per day of landfill-diverted HSW for co-digestion with wastewater biosolids. This supports methane emissions reductions from landfill, compliance with state organics recycling mandates, and enhances biogas production to support SNRC energy-neutrality. Tip fees collected offset operating costs at SNRC and support rate stabilization. Key Technologies: SNRC employs leading edge technologies from Anaergia and Fibracast to achieve resilient, self-sufficient operations with minimal residuals. -Fibracast MBR: Water is recycled using a MBR with FibrePlate membranes so that it may be used for groundwater recharge. These proprietary membranes combine the best advantages of hollow-fiber and flat sheet MBR systems, using aeration and mixed liquor cross filtration to continuously clean the membranes during operation. The membrane's high packing density, low trans-membrane pressure, and advanced automation leads to easy and reliable plant operations. -Anaergia Omnivore high-solids digestion: Omnivore was employed to cost-effectively provide the digester capacity required to process wastewater biosolids and HSW and generate biogas for energy neutrality. Omnivore uses Anaergia proprietary OmniMix high-solids mixing system together with robust thickening technology to increase the solids ratio in digesters, allowing for triple the feed capacity of a traditional digester, reduced footprint, and reduced and capital expense. This was particularly important at SNRC given space constraints. Anaergia screw presses are employed to pre-thicken digester feeds, which also reduces heat demand associated with heating excess liquid within the digester. Anaergia OmniMix mixers ensure the thickened digestate, including high-solids HSW, is adequately mixed to support tank turnover, digester health, and VSR. OmniMix mixers provide improved energy efficiency versus traditional mixing systems. Overall, Omnivore provides SNRC with reduced energy demand while supporting increased biogas production, advancing achievement of energy-neutrality. -Anaergia AMR sidestream treatment: After digestion, digestate is dewatered via Anaergia screw presses to 25% TS. The filtrate is processes via Anaergia AMR to recover up to 90% of nitrogen as ammonia, creating ammonium sulfate (AMS) fertilizer. AMR operations use heat generated via biogas CHP. Following sidestream treatment, filtrate is also treated via MBR for groundwater recharge. Strategic Partnerships: SNRC was conceived of primarily as a community resource beyond essential water and wastewater services. SNRC supports community and economic development by providing valuable resources for residents and strategic partnerships. -Workforce Development: SNRC resulted in creation of numerous permanent, full-time Greentech jobs within the District service area. Leveraging the new public spaces built as part of the project, EVWD intends to host community events, including educational events focused on SNRC capabilities to enhance engagement and sense of ownership. As SNRC is located across the street from Indian Springs High School, EVWD has launched a Water and Resource Recovery Career Pathway in partnership with San Bernardino City Unified School District. This program offers courses that highlight opportunities in the resource recovery sector and facilitate industry leaders sharing technical and personal stories to community members at no cost. A similar program has been established with San Bernardino Valley College. SNRC also house the Water Education Learning Lab (WELL) Program to provide readily-accessible hands-on experiences and training. Rialto Bioenergy Facility: Dewatered biosolids generated at SNRC will be transported approximately 10 miles to Anaergia's RBF, where they will be dried and pyrolyzed. The resulting Class A product is carbon- and nutrient-rich, and free of PFAS and other contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) such as microplastics and pharmaceuticals. This process allows both nutrients and energy from biosolids to be recovered and beneficially reused. Further, this partnership provides EVWD with a reliable and environmentally friendly guaranteed biosolids management outlet, compliant with California SB1383 regulations, which limit landfill disposal of organics such as biosolids. By establishing agreements within the region, vehicle miles and emissions associated with biosolids hauling are also significantly reduced. Anaergia Nutrients: EVWD and Anaergia once again teamed to develop the Anaergia Nutrients facility at an underutilized District property, approximately two miles from SNRC. The facility will blend Class A soil amendment produced at RBF with AMS recovered at SNRC to create a marketable carbon-negative commercial fertilizer. The user-friendly material can be readily substituted for more costly conventional fertilizers. As a result, two resources often treated as residuals are instead converted to a valuable product helping to close the loop on nutrient recovery and create ancillary benefits and improve profitability for California farmers. EVWD and its ratepayers directly benefit from enhanced property use, lease payments, and host fees. Waste Generators & Haulers: SNRC provides a reliable alternative HSOW disposal option that meets state organics diversion requirements that is also good for business. Rather than travel to landfill, waste haulers reduce vehicle miles and emissions by disposing of waste at SNRC and reduced trip time translates to more business. The mutual benefits mean robust and consistent feedstock source to SNRC for onsite renewable energy generation. SNRC is the result of a visionary mission for EVWD. It provides the new model for stewardship of scarce public resources while enhancing quality of life and economic growth.