Safeguarding Water Quality: Improvements to Coto Laurel Water Treatment Plant

In the southern city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, thousands of families rely on a steady flow of clean and safe drinking water. By 2020, however, the Coto Laurel Water Treatment Plant faced an urgent challenge, ensuring compliance with evolving environmental regulations. The plant needed upgrades to meet stricter requirements for disinfection by products, organic matter removal, and disinfection processes. Without improvements, both the community’s water quality and regulatory standing were at risk.

A Call for Compliance

ECR Engineering was entrusted with this project through past project references, a testament to the trust built from years of collaboration. The task was clear: redesign the plant to ensure compliance, while keeping it fully operational during construction a delicate balancing act that demanded precision and creativity.

Overcoming the First Hurdles

The greatest challenge was identifying a technology capable of handling high organic loads with minimal maintenance. At the same time, every proposed improvement had to be executed in a way that avoided service interruptions, since the facility could not stop operations even for a day. For a community of 12,000 families, uninterrupted access to safe drinking water was non-negotiable.

The Technical Approach

With an investment of $6.0 million, ECR Engineering designed a series of improvements using conventional water treatment technologies. These enhancements targeted the plant’s most critical processes, optimizing disinfection, improving organic matter removal, and ensuring regulatory compliance. While the technologies were well established in the industry, their careful adaptation to Coto Laurel’s specific needs was what made the project a success.

A Lasting Impact

By December 2020, the design phase was complete, paving the way for construction and long-term benefits. Today, the upgrades provide the community with reliable, compliant water treatment infrastructure. The project not only reinforced the plant’s role as a cornerstone of public health in Ponce but also set the foundation for sustainable operations in the years ahead.

At ECR Engineering, we believe every improvement is more than just an upgrade, it is a promise of safer, cleaner water for the people we serve.