Thank you very much for the invitation, I'm very happy to be here speaking to you.
So I'm going to talk about some opportunities of wastewater reuse in Baja, California.
Probably you already know, some of this data, but I hope you don't, because things have
been changing quite fast sometimes.
Well, as an introduction, I mean, you already know that water quality and the way that we
can reuse wastewater depends on the type of treatment that we provide.
So if we start with raw wastewater, then we treat it well and it goes up to drinking water
level.
And once we use it, it goes to wastewater turns into wastewater.
And we already can reuse wastewater without any treatment.
Although we do provide secondary treatment, and we can use it for for some things and
we use it if we make a tertiary treatment then we can use it for for things that are
more health related, you know, of importance.
But then we can have even an advanced treatment, which basically depends on membranes.
And with that you can obtain water that is really really of high quality, even sometimes
higher than raw water, natural water or it's compatible even to drinking water.
So we have to stop, you know, worrying about the quality of wastewater because we have
the technology, obviously, the more we treated the most expensive it becomes.
As as as Mr. Gibson said, the amount of water we use in California is really is really high
and in the in the whole world, you can even say that it's an example of things like these,
this data is from 2009.
And it says that most of the water reuse in California goes to agriculture irrigation,
and then follows by followed by landscape irrigation, groundwater recharge.
So, if we share these, you know, similar things I think that in Baja California we can also
manage our wastewater similarly to you guys.
And this is the plan in the year 2013, in which the state already had the idea to to
reuse water in Tijuana, in Tecate, in Mexi-Cali and there are some small some data here here
at the bottom, okay, so this is the plan, plans for year 2035.
Okay, so already the state is considering the reuse of water in the main cities of Baja
California.
And I'm going to go through what is happening at the moment.
With water reuse in Mexi-Cali, Mexi-Cali, as you know, is the capital of the of the
state and 250 liters per second I'm sorry about the units but I mean, I had to work
with with with the ones that I'm familiar with.
250 liters per second of untreated wastewater are used for the generation of electricity
and electricity that is that is being used and Mexi-Cali but also is being exported to
the US.
That increase in 2002 to 900 liters per second.
But remember, this is untreated, wastewater, and in 2005 a smaller water treatment plant
with a capacity of only 15 liter per second was to provide tertiary treatment was built
for the use of wastewater in irrigation of landscapes and it will still parks.
The wastewater use opportunities in Mexi-Cali that I, that I consider is aquifer recharge.
There's a neighboring city in in Mexi-Cali, its east of Mexi-Cali it’s called San Luis
Rio Colorado in the state of Sonora, and it's the only Mexican city that practices aquifer
recharge.
And actually, researcher from UABC and, and here is Jorge Ramirez and his team, did the,
the studies to demonstrate that infiltration was possible in that area.
So the same can happen in Mexi-Cali.
I mean, we have a lot of desert, we have a lot of space, it's not a problem with that.
We could really use infiltration basis there to recharge out the the the aquifer, the local
aquifer.
And the other thing is that we could substitute white water or under underground water, groundwater,
with reclaimed water for crop production.
Sometimes you don't really need a very high quality water for irrigation for example of
cotton, we could use let's say primary treated or secondary treated wastewater for this.
In Ensenada, Ensenada, is located 150, roughly kilometres south of the border, and we have
problems because we can only we rely on groundwater from the Valle Guadalupe and from Maneadero
Valley, which are agriculture valley’s.
And we already knew there was there was going to be a deficit since 2012.
And even earlier, this deficit was going to be covered by a dissemination plant, which
took a lot to be built.
Finally it started working last year.
Supplies approximately, it's built for 250 liters per second, but it supplies only like
200.
And then from waste water, I mean water from the, from the Colorado River aqueduct, and
Tijuana.
This hasn't been built, the desalination plant has been built, but it's working only as I,
as I say, partially.
So we are in deep scarcity in the region.
One of the things that CESPE did was to provide less water per capita.
So instead of consumption of 220 liters per person per day, came down to only 180.
So that meant that by 2014, we really started to feel that that that scarcity, not before.
If we compare this water supply to San Diego where we're really like half of what's consumed
here or even less.
So what happened?
20 kilometre pipe was built between Ensenada and the south of Ensenada to supply water
to Maneadero, however, the farmers didn't like the price, they didn't want to pay for
that water.
So after only in 2013, after a five year drought, did the farmers agree to receive the water
and they're not paying for the water at the moment because they negotiated with with CESPE.
And finally in June 29, 2014, 200 liters per second of raw water up sorry reclaimed water
and secondary treated water were delivered to Maneadero.
Oh, it's been delivered to three areas.
This is these are creeks for infiltration, and in this central area, we have a crop production.
These are the bases in which the wastewater reaches the valley and these are like, basically
is just being discharged to the creeks and there was an actual inflation there.
So we did a research study from 2015 to 2016, and we saw that the TDS of the reclaimed water
is really high 3500 I mean 3100 milligrams per liter, which is which is really high,
and some of the Adjutant whales present presented fecal coliforms.
So there is you know some infiltration of untreated wastewater to the to the local whales.
And also nitrogen and phosphorus were enough so that these could act as natural fertilizers.
150 so far 150 hectares of farmland have been reactivated and 1200 jobs have been created,
with a production of approximately 2 million USD dollars.
However, most of the of the reclaimed water is being discharged to the creeks without
any control release.
We have to be very careful there.
And also, there is no official monitoring program here.
I mean, it's just like, CESPE started to do it, and there is no control.
So I know that it sounds crazy, but I mean, that's the way it is.
Waste water reuse in Tijuana - what could happen?
Well, we have five large wastewater treatment plants, the International Wastewater Treatment
plant, right at the border, the San Antonio de los Buenos of Punta Banderas that treats
both 1000, 100 liters per second and then some other more, smaller wastewater treatment
plants at the East.
But as everybody knows Punta Banderas has a very low quality effluent.
So even though officially, this is treated water, it's really basically raw sewage.
Okay, it doesn't.
That waste water treatment plan doesn't work really.
So that’s why one of the, the ideas is to provide ways of good treatment to the wastewater
in Tijuana and send it to Guadalupe Valley at the east of Tijuana.
And but what, what's what happens with with the Guadalupe Valley?
Well, it's the wine, that the main wine producer in Mexico, I mean, it's small, it doesn't
compare to Napa, but it is a very nice place and, and has a lot of tourism.
However, its water scarcity.
There is water scarcity due to over concessions of the whales, and there is insufficient natural
recharge.
So everybody tells us why don't you reuse the wastewater like Napa reuses wastewater?
Okay.
So yeah, the government officials go to Napa create you know, free trip to see how they
reuse over there and it's nothing spectacular okay.
They have a good wastewater treatment plant, they have good, good programs there.
And if we compare the irrigation plants of Napa and Tijuana, we can see, for example,
that salinity in Napa is less than 600 milligrams per liter.
Well in Tijuana it is more than 1500.
Okay, so is there was a problem straight away.
Is there a strategic plan for reclaimed water management?
Well yes, in Napa, they elaborated one in 2005, with 220 projection and in Tijuana,
it doesn't exist.
Are there reclaimed water reports?
Yes, in Napa, you can see them online monthly or almost daily.
And in Tijuana there are no available.
Is there a user manual for reclaimed water management?
Yes, in Napa they have one but in Tijuana they don't.
Price per cubic meter of $1 per a thousand gallons, which is like seven pesos per cubic
meter.
And in Tijuana, initially it was it was the plan was to have four pesos to charge four
pesos per per cubic meter.
But now, it went up to 11, and currently is more than 13 pesos per per cubic meter.
The amount but to be honest, the amount of reclaimed water used for vineyard irrigation
in Napa is not really that high.
I mean, if we convert to it, we convert the conversions between milligrams, I mean, million
gallons per day, to million cubic meters per year, it results in only 20- 2.67 million
cubic meters per year, which 49% goes to golf course irrigation.
According to Napa’s own statistics, and only 16% is used for vineyard irrigation.
Okay, which represents only 14 liters per second.
Okay?
So it's really small, and the plan is to send 1000 liters per second to for irrigation.
Okay, so we're going to have this monster project, okay, without really the basic you
know information and and and and the important programs and monitoring programs and control
programs and all of this that we need in order to to make such a such a big project work
and one more thing remember salinity?
Salinity is high so, we really need to bring down that salinity from from Tijuana okay.
So, really salinity can only be removed with RO or with electro dialysis, which is really
expensive.
However, the company that won the contract because this has already been won, is planning
to use I think electro dialysis, but if electro dialysis and RO removed practically everything
and pure water is obtained, then why not consider just like here in California, indirect potable
reuse?
Instead of sending it all the way to Napa, I mean, not to Napa, to Guadeloupe, why not
send it to the reservoirs of Abelardo Rodriguez or the Emilio Lopez, or Ensenada, that would
be really a more, you know, I don't know, proper way to, to, to, to manage that reclaimed
water.
Okay.
So in conclusion, responsible reclaimed water reuse requires a permanent and reliable monitoring
program, easily available results, clear contingency plans, willingness to pay also for the reclaimed
water, otherwise it doesn't make sense.
Take into consideration all stakeholders and very important clarity in decision in decision
making.
And the decisions have to be based on technical and scientific data and not on political interests,
which unfortunately, you know, dominates at least in in Mexico.
The other thing is that there is a lack of long term planning, I mean, we see the plans
always here in California, they are like 2035, 2040 and things like that.
And in in Baja, California, the previous governor didn't even manage to publish the State Water
plan.
Okay, in six years, he didn't manage to publish it.
So we don't have a short term version, we have a medium term vision.
And obviously we don't have a long long term vision, which is really what we need if we
really want to solve the problem of the water management here in Baja, California.
And just finally, go offsets the water desalination.
We haven't talked about desalination much but if we reuse reclaimed water, then there
is no need for desalination, which is really expensive.
And and I'm not a fan of it, but I know I know that sometimes you need it.
But if we haven't really solved the problem of wasted water treatment, why are we stepping
into desalination plants in Baja California?
We really need to attend this as a priority.
And finally just a thought, solving technical scientific aspects is easy.
But solving the political social aspects takes more time, and I’m sure we will get there
eventually.
It only took us 15 years to reach wastewater reuse in Ensenada, I hope that it takes us
a little bit less than that to achieve wastewater reuse in the other cities of Baja California.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)