FORT IRWIN, Calif.--The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Training Center at Fort Irwin hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for a $100 million water treatment plant for Fort Irwin and National Training Center Jun. 28.
The facility is a design-build effort by CDM Smith Construction to provide six million gallons of water per day to the inhabitants of the NTC.
“One of the things that I’m most proud of is the partnership we created between the Corps of Engineers and the Fort Irwin garrison,” said Col. Mark Toy, commander of the Los Angeles District. “I know the Fort Irwin installation has a choice of who they want to work with, we are very grateful that you choose the Army Corps of Engineers to do your project management and construction engineering management.”
Fort Irwin Garrison Commander Col. Kurt Pinkerton welcomed the attending guest and spoke to them about the need for the new facility.
According to Pinkerton, 50,000 soldiers train at the NTC annually and 85 percent of the post's permanently assigned community live on the post, which adds up to a very significant amount of water consumed and utilized for day-to-day operations.
The population of on-post inhabitants is anticipated to increase to 95 percent, but construction of the final phase of the post family housing can’t be done until the water treatment plant is completed to provide water to the additional housing.
The three-year construction project will replace the current multi-treatment system as well as use new technologies to process the water to meet state and federal standards.
The new plant will use a three-stage, electro-dialysis reversal (EDR) water treatment plant that treats all contaminants found in Fort Irwin's ground water in accordance with federal and state requirements.
The plant will include: an electro-dialysis reversal (EDR) primary treatment, lime softening clarifiers, lime solids thickeners, lime sludge lagoons, reverse osmosis (RO) filters, brine treatment facility, concentrate equalization basins and a mechanical evaporator tower and feed tank, and three evaporation ponds to achieve the post’s 99 percent water recovery rate.
The project also includes water system improvement and supporting utilities and infrastructure upgrades.
All information concerning project milestones can be found at the Federal Business Opportunities website (https://www.fbo.gov).