Basin Water (NASDAQ: BWTR [1]) has completed permitting and start-up of a system to remove nitrates from groundwater for the City of Avondale, Arizona.

Using Basin's proprietary ion exchange technology, the system will handle a 1,300 gpm (82L/s) flow at the City’s Northeast Pump Station Well with influent nitrate levels in the 13-16 mg/L range – lowering nitrate levels below the 10 mg/L level required by State and Federal regulations.

Low waste from Basin technology is expected to result in off-site disposal via trucking, and add millions of gallons of additional water to the well’s capacity.

Avondale entered into a 10-year contract with Basin for a turnkey solution to guarantee the life of the assets employed, the regulatory performance, the reliability of compliance and costs for the life of the contract.

“In order to meet the needs for high quality drinking water of our nation’s growing and shifting population demands, we believe our cost-effective, highly efficient wellhead treatment systems, like this system in Avondale, will be required all over the United States,” said Orlando Carreño, Vice President, Western Region of Basin Water.

Basin has over 50 installations in the United States today.

The company says its systems offer low waste rates compared with conventional ion exchange systems and other treatment approaches, allowing disposal of waste via trucking and eliminating the need for new waste-handling facilities.

Avondale is a rapidly growing city, located 15 mi west of Phoenix. Within its 54 square miles, Avondale’s population doubled in the 1990s and doubled again between 2000 and 2006. With a 2007 population of around 72,000 people, the city is expected to grow to 123,000 people by 2020.

The long-term use of fertilizer in its agricultural sectors has resulted in higher levels of nitrate in groundwater reserves.