Two Prizes for Expanding Usable Water Supplies

The Bureau of Reclamation is launching two new prize challenges, Arsenic Sensor Challenge and More Water, Less Concentrate.

This is the first stage for each challenge. Subsequent stages with larger prize purses are planned for testing and demonstrating the most promising technologies.

The Arsenic Sensor Challenge seeks to identify new or improved sensors, devices or test kits to measure arsenic in water in natural and engineered systems.

Current analytical methods are suitable for ensuring regulatory compliance. However, Reclamation and its collaborators identified a need for rapid, low-cost monitoring of arsenic that would benefit water treatment plant operations, wastewater monitoring, contaminated site remediation, private well owners, scientific research, and other interested parties.

The More Water, Less Concentrate prize challenge seeks innovative solutions to expand usable water supplies by maximizing fresh water production from inland desalination systems in a cost effective and environmentally sound manner.

Many inland communities are exploring desalination as a method to provide a new source of water. This challenge may help them by minimizing the concentrate stream volume and associated handling costs while maximizing the usable water produced by the process.

Source: USBR