As a result of the unprecedented economic growth in Quincy (i.e. the data centers, new wineries, additional food processing, an international intermodal warehouse and a rail intermodal terminal, etc), $4.5 million in funding was provided by the Washington State Legislature and the Governor this past legislative session so that Quincy will be able to begin building Phase 1 of a much needed water recycling/reuse facility and related infrastructure to service the northwest portion of Quincy.

The economy of the City of Quincy has always been dependent on the agricultural industry.  Several years ago, Quincy expanded its infrastructure to support two major food processors.  The city built a 5 million gallon per day food processing wastewater treatment plant, but that facility is nearly at its permitted capacity of 3.25 million gallons per day.  While the agricultural industry will always be a vital part of the city’s economy, a new industry, the high tech industry, has emerged, revitalizing our economy and promising a stable future.  The high tech industry, in the form of data centers, was attracted to Quincy by plentiful land, competitive power costs and a major fiber backbone that passed through the city.  Interestingly, data centers, like food processors, require significant quantities of water.  In the case of the data centers, the water is used to keep the numerous servers cool by evaporating the water in cooling towers.

The data centers in Quincy are projected to generate a significant amount of heat, especially in the summer, and their cooling plants will require an adequate supply of water per day to provide cooling for their servers. This will put a strain on the city’s fresh water supply, forcing the city to acquire additional water rights, which are difficult to find and very costly.  However, rather than the cooling plants using water from our domestic water system, they can use water recycled from our wastewater treatment plants.  We currently have nearly 1 million gallons of water available per day that can be recycled from our municipal Water Reclamation Plant.  As mentioned earlier, phase 1 of this project will provide for the installation of a pump station and pipeline to deliver the recycled water approximately 4 miles to this site.  The water will be treated on site and provided to the Microsoft Data Center for use in their cooling towers.  Phase 2 of the project, when funded, will extend the pipeline approximately two miles from this site to the northeast side of Quincy, to encompass the Yahoo and Intuit data centers and other economic developments.

In future phases, we plan to generate a new recycled water stream from our food processing wastewater treatment plant.  The utilization of this water as the primary source for data center cooling systems will free up capacity at the treatment plant, allowing for increased production by current food processors or the addition of new users.

Data center cooling systems also generate wastewater called blow down. The blow down currently drains to our municipal wastewater facility.  However, the new food processing water recycling system will be designed to receive the blow down, freeing up capacity in our municipal facility and ensuring growth will be supported.

The data centers have caused us to study our infrastructure very closely, revealing a chain of environmentally sustainable, economically beneficial improvements triggered by the data centers.  This will be the state of Washington’s first use of municipal recycled wastewater in industrial cooling towers.

This project is beneficial in so many ways.  The project will promote the reuse of resources, as well as reducing the burden on the city to acquire additional water rights.  The project, when completed, will benefit the agricultural industry by allowing use of the designed capacity at the food processing wastewater treatment facility, which is currently limited by our discharge permit with the Bureau of Reclamation.  The data centers will be the main users of this system, but the recycled water may be used for other purposes along the pipeline route, such as irrigation for schools and parks, further reducing the demand on the city’s water system.  The benefits of this system are numerous. 

The benefits of this system are numerous and I applaud those who had the vision to create such a system and those who have provided support.  I once again want to thank the governor and the state legislature for their support by providing funding for the current phase of this vital project and I look forward to your continued support in the future.                                           - Mayor Hemberry