Metropolitan Supplements Research Budget With Grant Money.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 6, 1998--In water-world lingo, it is like an El Nino in the midst of a multiyear drought.

Since mid-1997, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has earned a flood of grant money -- more than $2 million in the upcoming year -- to pursue research projects aimed at advancing the science of public health protection through improved drinking water monitoring and treatment technologies.

This windfall could not have come at a better time, with a climate characterized by cost-containment and downsizing, according to Mark D. Beuhler, Metropolitan's director of water quality.

"In more austere times, research is viewed less as a necessity and more as a luxury," said Beuhler. "To maintain a steady revenue stream for research, Metropolitan has turned to outside funding sources."

In the past year, Metropolitan has been successful in 13 of 20 grant proposals, bringing in an estimated $2 million, Beuhler said. Grants awards range from $25,000 to $710,000.

"Metropolitan's success rate with grants is linked to the unusual partnerships we form with other industry leaders, both within and outside the water community, to give our findings more credibility and broader application," Beuhler said. "By bringing together the best of the best, we have been able to secure more and larger grants from agencies banking on the collective strength of our expertise."

The largest award, $2.89 million from the California Energy Commission, brings together Metropolitan, the Orange County Water District and the Electric Power Research Institute under the direction of Edison Technology Solutions to study alternative and much less costly methods for water purification and salt removal using electrotechnologies. Metropolitan's share of the grant is $710,000.

Since 1996, Metropolitan has been awarded 25 research grants. To accommodate the increased workload, the Metropolitan water quality workforce has grown by 20 percent to about 120 staff members.

"Our biggest problem is that we have a three-year backlog of more than $3.5 million in grant money because of staffing size limitations," Beuhler said.

Endowments to date have come from agencies that include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California Energy Commission, U.S. Department of Agriculture, American Water Works Research Foundation (AWWARF), Water Environment Research Foundation, National Water Research Institute and the Electric Power Research Institute.

The research has paid off. Two grants, both supported by AWWARF, resulted in substantially reduced design costs, Beuhler said. Both investigated the use of ozone and PEROXONE (the combination of ozone and hydrogen peroxide) in Metropolitan's source waters.

Beuhler said that one demonstration project, "Demonstration-Scale Evaluation of Engineering Aspects of the Ozone/Peroxide Advanced Oxidation Process," will save the agency an estimated $53 million in capital costs by supporting a one-third size reduction in the design ozone capacity.

A second project, "Optimizing Filtration in Biological Filters," showed that the agency's standard filter media design could remove biodegradable ozonation byproducts without the need for a $15 million retrofit.

While the research findings contribute to the knowledge base of the industry, they also can stimulate the technology market, Beuhler said.

"If we find, for example, that a certain membrane technology is the most effective way to remove salts from water, the demand will force the suppliers to keep pace," Beuhler said.

This year's projects will look at different treatment technologies for the removal of organic and industrial contaminants, such as ozone, pulsed ultraviolet radiation, reverse osmosis and granular activated carbon systems. Other projects will focus on screening for constituents that cause disease, and study their survivability in certain types of reservoirs.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a consortium composed of 27 cities and water agencies serving 16 million people in six counties. The District imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water recycling, desalination, conservation, storage and other water management programs.