Transforming Santa Monica’s Water Treatment with High-Recovery RO

Santa Monica Arcadia Water Treatment Plant Retrofit

The City of Santa Monica partnered with ROTEC to upgrade its Arcadia Water Treatment Plant, integrating Flow Reversal Reverse Osmosis (FR-RO) to improve efficiency, reliability, and water independence.

The full-scale retrofit represents the first municipal implementation of FR-RO in the U.S., achieving higher recovery and lower operational costs while reusing the plant’s existing infrastructure.

• 90% Recovery Rate – maintained stable, high-recovery operation under challenging scaling conditions involving both silica and calcium carbonate.
• Reduced Energy Use – lowered specific energy consumption to 0.25 kWh/m³, improving operational efficiency compared to the previous design.
• Lower Maintenance Requirements – extended cleaning intervals and reduced antiscalant dosing, cutting chemical consumption and downtime.
• Compact Retrofit Design – reconfigured existing three-stage RO skids without increasing footprint, minimizing CAPEX and installation time.