Pacific Rim - CITY OF BEVERLY HILLS, CA

PROBLEM:

During one of the dryer periods in California, the City of Beverly Hills chose to see if they could provide some of their own water.

There was plenty of water but not of the quality they expected. The City is surrounded by oil fields and is adjacent to the La Brea Tar pits. This wealthy real estate produced ground water that was rich in volatile hydrocarbons and odorous sulfide compounds. The water literally smelled.

The consulting engineer handling the project sought a viable solution to the water contamination and choose to invite three firms to devise and test their own idea of best available technology. The three processes tested were:

Degasifier / stripping
UV Irradiation and hydrogen peroxide treatment
High pressure ion exchange and filtration

SOLUTION:

After studying the water impurities, Pacific Rim designed and pilot tested the simplest of the three solutions, a proven, very low technology degasifier/stripper. The degasifier transfers the hydrogen sulfide and the methane from the water to the air, and the stripper takes the hydrogen sulfide out of the air and stores it in activated carbon (there was not enough methane to worry about combustion).

In the end this simple technology won out over the more complex solutions. The Pacific Rim approach was significantly less expensive to purchase and operate while providing comparable water quality.

The City thanked Pacific Rim and quietly plugged the well. Perhaps if water becomes very scarce Pacific Rim will get another call.