Water Reclamation Treatment

Electrical, Instrumentation & Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition

This section installs, maintains and incorporates advancements for multiple Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. Almost all physical aspects of both clean water service and wastewater service treatment at the City of San Bernardino Municipal Water Department rely on the operation of electric motors, instruments, and controls. This section is responsible for complex electrical and instrumentation/control installation and repair on Water and Water Reclamation Facilities. This includes a wide range of electrical and instrumentation gear from lighting to fiber optics and radio systems.

Water Reclamation Operations

The Operations Section is responsible for the day to day operation of the Water Reclamation Plant. The Operations Section is staffed by twenty-four highly trained wastewater treatment plant operators who are certified by the State of California Water Resources Control Board. The primary objective of the team of certified operators is to control the processes which are used to treat the raw wastewater received at the Water Reclamation Plant. A variety of treatment processes are used to filter the wastewater to meet or exceed the discharge requirements included in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit issued by the State of California. Learn more about the Water Reclamation Operator in Training Program.

Water Reclamation Maintenance

The Water Reclamation Maintenance section helps the Department collect and treat wastewater by maintaining and repairing equipment and facilities at two treatment facilities and fifteen lift stations. This section is comprised of two sub-sections: Mechanical and Facilities.

Each sub-section performs routine scheduled preventative maintenance and unscheduled corrective maintenance work orders in their respective work disciplines. Typical equipment/structures include:

Conveyors
Engines
Pumps
Specialty process equipment and mechanical equipment with concrete process tanks, building, and facilities

Mechanical Maintenance

Staff maintains four large industrial digester gas-fueled pumps capable of moving 13,000 gallons of water per minute, conveyor systems to move dewatered material to trucks for disposal, belt presses to dewater processed material, and the mechanical equipment within the concrete process tanks.

Facilities Maintenance

Staff maintained 85 plus acres of plant grounds and approximately 20 buildings. Additional assistance is provided with facility maintenance at the Department’s Customer Service, Engineering, Administrative, and Warehouse buildings.

Rapid Infiltration & Extraction

The Rapid Infiltration and Extraction Facility (RIX) receives approximately 33 million gallons per day of secondary treated wastewater from the WRP and City of Colton’s treatment facility. Natural bio-filtration is employed through the use of percolation basins and ultra-violet disinfection is used to meet the State of California Title 22 tertiary standards, in addition to the discharge standards specified in a separate NPDES permit issued to the RIX facility.

RIX treated wastewater consistently meets or exceeds required discharge standards and is often superior in quality to effluent produced through conventional tertiary facilities.