MyCelx Filtration Unit Deployed at the Dalles Lock and Dam, Columbia River

The Background

In the Spring of 2002, the US Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, decided to design a stormwater treatment system to treat turbine oils and other oils and greases that accumulate in their collection system in the base of the dam. The turbine oils come from leaks and maintenance activities on their equipment. The water comes from wash down activities and seepage from the dam. The water, oils and grease are collected in a central sump at the base of the dam.

The Problem

The goal was to design a system that could also be used at seven other dams on the Columbia River. The challenge was to design a system that could handle over 700 gallons per minute, have the capacity to treat high concentrations of oils and grease and discharge less than 15 parts per million of oil and grease with no visible sheen. A further constraint was the system had to have a small enough footprint to fit in a confined area.

The Solution

Koch/Infinity (a MyCelx Technologies Stocking Distributor) proposed a parallel treatment train with two oil water separators (OWSs) followed by two MyCelx MX-52s.The parallel configuration allowed the power plant operators to handle higher flows when warranted or operate a single system with one system on stand-by. The Corps liked the concept as it met all of their parameters. In the final system configuration, the OWSs operate in parallel to split the flow to about 380 gpm through each OWS. The flow through the OWSs is constant, with intermittent high flows when the central sump is full.A float actuates the pump to send the water to the OWSs. A monitoring system is installed to measure the quality of the discharge from the OWSs and the MX-52s at two different points. The MX-52s only operate when the discharge from the OWSs exceed the discharge parameters. When a second alarm comes on after the MX-52s, the operators inspect and change the MyCelx cartridges (if necessary).

The Results

The project was designed in the Fall of 2002. The contract was awarded in May 2003 and installed in July 2003. The system is currently in operation and meeting the discharge limits. A follow-on project was designed for the Bonneville Dam, Power House1 and will be installed in 2004.

Construction Update in 2006
In 2006 the USACE Portland District upgraded the system to increase the capacity of the existing oil/water separation/filtration and hydrocarbon detection sytem in the Dalles Dam powerhouse drainage sump system. The design began in May 2005. The project was designed to handle flow rates up to 2500 gpm. The filtration specifications required four 144-round vessels. The two lead vessels required 5 micron particle filters and the two 144-round lag vessels required 40" MyCelx filters. The construction project was awarded and constructed between April-October 2006. The system continues to perform very well keeping the discharge of less than 15 ppm of oil and grease.