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This paper is a story of the challenge faced by a small community to produce safeand affordable drinking water over the long term. The Town of Meeteetse, Wyomingis a community of 370 residents. In August 1994 the US Environmental ProtectionAgency (USEPA) conducted a sanitary survey of Meeteetse's water treatment systemand found the microorganism giardia in the treated water. As a result, USEPAissued an Emergency Administrative Order to boil water, undertake severalcorrective actions, and increase Meeteetse's turbidity removal standard from0.5 NTU to 0.2 NTU. In a subsequent series of studies funded by the State ofWyoming, a nearby reservoir (Lower Sunshine) water was found to be the mostsatisfactory and reliable raw water source for the Town. Membrane microfiltration(MMF) was included in the preliminary engineering report as an alternativetreatment process. After many questions by the Town Council, the Town opted to gowith the MMF process even though the MMF has the highest first cost among thealternatives evaluated. This choice was a leap of faith because the MMFtechnology was completely new to Wyoming. The overriding issue determining theprocess selection was the 0.1-0.2 micron pore size that made MMF an absolutebarrier to disease-causing microorganisms, giardia and cryptosporidium. Thiscapability provided the necessary assurance that the treatment plant wouldprotect the public health as well as meeting existing and probable futurebiological removal and turbidity removal standards. Additional concerns of theCouncil were the issues of the wastewater discharges from the treatment process,reliability of the selected process, and the quality of services available fromthe manufacturer and suppliers. The Council was further assured in acceptance ofthe MMF technology when they learned of the harmless waste stream and theavailability of automated telemonitoring and diagnostic services made possible bycomputer modem and telephone hookup to the manufacturer. Details of the processselection, procurement, funding and cost analysis are presented in the paper. Includes 4 references, tables.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 05/01/2001 Number of Pages: 8 File Size: 1 file , 240 KB