Desalination of brackish groundwater for a prairie community using electrodialysis reversal

In Oct 1987, the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration, a branch of Agriculture Canada with a mandate to drought proof the prairies of Canada, retained CH2M HILL Engineering Ltd. to investigate desalination of the regional aquifer for supplementing the City of Melville's water supply. This paper discusses the pretreatment and design considerations for both processes and describes the results of over 2000 hours of RO and EDR pilot plant testing. System performance and operational experiences are described together with the process design criteria and cost estimates for the full-scale plants. In general, the EDR system was less susceptible to fouling and was considered to be more amenable to the start/stop operation, and long periods without use, which was required in the Melville application.