Press Release: Cal/EPA Applauds Tri Valley Growers "State of the Art" Waste Water Treatment System

For Immediate Release (C-19-97)
Contact: Communications Office (916) 324-9670
May 29, 1997

555 Capitol Mall, Suite 525
Sacramento, CA 95814

Madera Undersecretary for Environmental Protection Peter Rooney attended today the opening ceremonies of the new Tri Valley Growers (TVG) Olive Processing Plant's new water purification system (Plant No.8). This new eight million dollar treatment system allows the plant to recycle all of the waste water produced and cuts energy consumption by 13 percent. 

"This state of the art waste water recycling system is a positive step forward for environmental technology in the agricultural sector in California. This plant was on the verge of shutting down just a few years ago and because of the visionary leadership of the Tri Valley Growers, they solved the problem and improved the environment," said Rooney.

The waste water filtration takes the olive processing water and recycles it through reverse osmosis membranes that contain openings two million times smaller than a grain of sand that allow only clean water to pass.

Modifications made in the processing plant have reduced daily water consumption from 1.3 million to 800,000 gallons per day. The recycling system will be able to handle one million gallons of waste water per day. This is the first of its kind in the agricultural community in California and the country.

The Wilson Administration supported Cal/EPA, the State Water Resources Control Board, California Energy Commission, and State Trade & Commerce Agency in an agreed three-year remediation plan which corrected the groundwater contamination problem and allowed the TVG plant to continue operating keeping 600 workers employed which lead to the development of the waste water purification system.

Traditional disposal of brine and olive process water involves filling evaporation reservoirs, many of which can leak damaging lye-and salt-laden materials into groundwater. This new system eliminates such an environmental hazard.

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