I visited El Paso Water‘s Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant in El Paso, TX on October 30th, 2019. This plant is the largest brackish groundwater desalination facility in the United States with a total capacity of 27.5 million gallons per day (MGD). There are five 2-stage RO skids, each of which can produce 3 MGD of highly purified water. The purified water is blended with the raw groundwater to adjust the total dissolved solids and hardness in the product water. The RO concentrate is currently sent to injection wells (~4,000 feet deep) for disposal.
KBH Desal Plant in El Paso, TX
Salts in Brackish Groundwater, Purified Water, and Concentrate
RO Skid
RO Concentrate Sample Collection