GE Water & Process Technologies, the water treatment division of General Electric, has secured a contract to upgrade the Lake Manatee Water Treatment Plant in the US state of Florida.

As per the contract, GE will supply and install new and advanced water treatment equipment for the facility, which has a capacity process about 52 million gallons of water per day.

Water from the county is supplied to the nearby counties including Sarasota County, the cities of Palmetto and Bradenton and the municipalities on the barrier islands.

Lake Manatee reservoir (surface water) and the East County Well Field (ground water) are the water sources for the county.

For the plant, GE will supply its ZeeWeed 1000 ultrafiltration membranes for the surface water trains. The water filtered from the new system is claimed to meet the stringent US Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards.

With the new system in place, Manatee County expects to meet the water needs of its citizens, while not increasing the footprint of the plant.

GE will supply 12 membrane trains, which are designed to be in two-stacks and can be retrofitted to existing sand filter basins. The company claims that its technology can offer low life cycle cost, and the project incorporates a partial siphon design, which can save in permeate pumping costs. The plant is expected to operate at 96.3% recovery after the retrofit.

Manatee County water manager Mark Simpson said: “We continually look for ways to improve our level of service, and the value of those services, to our customers.

“Harnessing ultrafiltration technology for this repair and replacement project will ensure we can meet current filtration requirements under the most challenging conditions experienced in Lake Manatee and positions us to meet even more stringent proposed requirements.”

GE Water & Process Technologies engineered systems global leader Kevin Cassidy said: “The ZeeWeed 1000 membrane consistently outperforms conventional filtration technology while meeting or exceeding regulatory requirements, regardless of source water quality.

“It produces superior water quality and is virtually unaffected by variable raw water quality, which makes it the ideal technology to use for the upgrade of the Lake Manatee Water Treatment Plant.”

Image: GE to upgrade water treatment plant in Florida. Photo: Courtesy of General Electric.