IWS installed its Denitrification Upflow Filter at the legendary Rancho Encantado resort outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2008, and the system has been running for over a year with excellent performance. Under a Design-Build contract, IWS designed, and constructed a system to treat 20,000 gallons per day of wastewater from the resort. The facility includes 65 rooms (casitas), over 300 seats of restaurant capacity, and a spa. The system has met its discharge requirement every month.
IWS has done extensive sampling each month to monitor performance. Based on monthly sampling events, the average TN over the past 12 months is 49.4 mg/l inlet, and 3.1 mg/l out of the Upflow Filter. The highest TN recorded in any month was 8.1 mg/l (which was at the tail end of reaching steady state) and the lowest TN was 1.4 mg/l. The system configuration included: 6 Orenco Advantex AX-100 pods; 40,000 gallons of septic tank capacity; 20,000 gallons of anoxic capacity; 20,000 gallon recirculation tank; and a 5,000 gallon dosing tank.
- IWS Upflow in the foreground and Orenco Advantex Pods in the background