Gulf Power Recycles 5 Billion Gallons Of ECUA Reclaimed Water

November 15, 2012

It’s the perfect match – a wastewater treatment plant and a power plant. And two years and five billion gallons of water later, Gulf Power Company and Emerald Coast Utility Authority are proving that by working together a sustainable system of treating wastewater and making electricity can be a thing of beauty.

The electric utility recently surpassed the 5 billion-gallon mark in the amount of treated water used at the Plant Crist electric generating plant north of Pensacola. The plant uses the water as a cooling agent in the steam production process to operate a state-of-the-art scrubber system that reduces air emissions. And, by using the water from the nearby ECUA water treatment plant, the company avoids taking millions of gallons of water out of the Escambia River.

“This shows through teamwork and innovation, two different utilities can work together to benefit all their customers and the environment,” said Natalie Smith, Gulf Power spokesperson. “With our scrubber system we are providing cleaner electricity for our customers in Northwest Florida, and this partnership with ECUA shows that we can provide solutions for sustainable resources and responsible growth. This partnership benefits Northwest Florida with cleaner air — and cleaner water.”

The award-winning Gulf Power-ECUA project started in October 2010, when Emerald Coast Utilities Authority began piping water from its new Central Water Reclamation Facility to Plant Crist, four miles away. Plant Crist uses the treated water in its steam generating process and to operate the scrubber system, which reduces regulated air emissions from Plant Crist by more than 95 percent.

The new advanced ECUA facility was built to replace the Main Street Wastewater plant, which was located downtown across the street from the Community Maritime Park. Since Gulf Power and International Paper are able to use the reclaimed water, the new facility is considered zero-discharge.

“Being good stewards of the environment is part of our mission at Gulf Power and this project is a great example of doing this on a very large scale,” Smith said.

In September, Gulf Power won a national award from the WasteReuse Association as Water Reuse Customer of the Year. The partnership with ECUA won the Sustainable Florida Award in 2010. A year later, it won the 2011 Industry Excellence Award from the Southeastern Electric Exchange, which includes 20 major utilities in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic from Texas to Maryland and Virginia. Gulf Power also won the David York Water Reuse Award from the Florida Water Environment Association earlier this year.

Pictured: The Central Water Reclamation Facility in Cantonment. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.

Comments

5 Responses to “Gulf Power Recycles 5 Billion Gallons Of ECUA Reclaimed Water”

  1. Mark on November 15th, 2012 3:10 pm

    Exactly @PSUEarl! No matter what they do to improve the environment, make things more efficient, etc, it all leads to increased rates for the consumer!

    Unfortunately, it will ALWAYS be this way, because businesses must show growth (especially in profits) every year. i.e. they can never make too much money!

  2. PSUEarl on November 15th, 2012 10:12 am

    Although these are great programs and terrific for the environment… Just like many others ECUA and Gulf Power have going, they do save money and a few programs like the recycling and gas generators at the dump make money for these companies…

    And all this gets my rates lowered by how much? Oh yeah, both utilities want to raise my rate…

  3. marty on November 15th, 2012 8:20 am

    what happens to the water after GP and IP use it? do they dump it into Escambia River?

  4. Jane on November 15th, 2012 5:39 am

    Private businesses working together to make a difference in our area…I like it!

  5. Robert on November 15th, 2012 5:21 am

    It’s refreshing to hear good news regarding a public/private enterprise.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News