Micron Technology requires a continuous source of high quality water for their semiconductor manufacturing facility at the Federal Way campus in Boise, Idaho. To meet these needs, SPF engineers worked with Micron on the planning, design, and construction of an innovative 1 mgd membrane filtration plant and aquifer storage and recovery project. SPF worked with Micron to expand the facility to 2 mgd, with an ultimate capacity of 4 mgd. SPF engineers worked on the water rights acquisition, well design, aquifer modeling, and water treatment plant design for the system. The system pumps water from an intake on the Boise River approximately 5 miles to the Micron facility. Water right permitting strategies were developed and implemented to allow water to be recharged and recovered, while protecting existing water rights in the Southeast Boise Ground Water Management Area. The project demonstrates that Boise River water can be treated to drinking water standards, stored underground without evaporation loss or contamination, and recovered later for beneficial uses. Water supplies that would otherwise be lost from the Boise River system during high water periods can be stored without the need for construction of above ground reservoirs. Two stages of membrane treatment are used to reduce rejected water to less than 1 percent of the total flow. The treated water is injected into the aquifer via a 1,215 feet deep well, and later recovered through existing production wells located ¼ to ½ mile away. The temperature and chemistry of injected water stabilizes along the flow path from injection to recovery.
The project won the ASCE Southern Idaho Section and the Pacific Northwest Regional Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award in 2003 and competed in the national competition.
