CDM Constructors, Inc.

Client:

Rick Molongoski - Client Service Leader

Scope Of Work

Design-build delivery enabled Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, Inc., to meet its renewable energy, process water reuse and schedule objectives in Arizona.

Our clients are pioneers in reducing their operational impact on the environment through water conservation, energy use reduction and waste minimization. In Casa Grande, Arizona, an ambitious project is allowing Frito-Lay's snack food manufacturing plant to run entirely on renewable energy and recycled water while producing nearly zero waste. As part of this initiative, CDM Smith designed and built a 650,000-gallon-per-day process water treatment and recovery system that recycles up to 75 percent of the plant’s process water—enabling Frito-Lay to reduce its annual water use by 100 million gallons.

The advanced purification system incorporates screening, sedimentation, membrane bioreactor (MBR), activated carbon, ultraviolet, low pressure reverse osmosis, water stabilization and chlorine disinfection to treat the effluent to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency primary and secondary drinking water quality standards. Meeting these standards enables Frito-Lay to safely reuse its process water to wash and move potatoes and corn. This is the first U.S. food processing plant that produces drinking water quality process water to be reused in food production.

The facility also freed up land, previously used for the pre-treatment and land application of wastewater, for a 5-megawatt photovoltaic solar system that produces almost all of the plant’s daytime electricity needs. CDM Smith completed the entire photovoltaic solar installation, including 36 acres of photovoltaic panels on dual-axis ground-mount systems, single-axis concentrated photovoltaic collectors and dish collectors with Stirling© engine generators.