PPG Wichita Falls Flat Glass Plant Significantly Reduces Fresh Water Consumption

PPG Industries announced that a joint wastewater-reuse project with the city of Wichita Falls, Texas, has cut fresh water consumption by as much as 50 percent per day at the company’s glass manufacturing plant located there. The $1.9 million project, which diverts treated wastewater to the plant’s glass-cooling towers, came online in February in the midst of a historic drought that had left the city’s water reservoirs at less than 20 percent of capacity. The project has since helped the PPG facility reduce its peak daily fresh water consumption by as much as 200,000 gallons – about cutting in half the volume it used previously on a hot Texas summer day, and helping to preserve as much as 6 million gallons of much needed potable water in a month.

“Conserving water in this area is more critical than ever,” said Bill Haley, PPG plant manager, Wichita Falls. “This project created a win-win situation for our company and all of us who live and work in the community, too. In partnership with the city, we developed and implemented a sustainable solution that benefits everyone.”

Wastewater from the Wichita Falls Northside Wastewater Treatment Plant flows through a new pipeline into a retention pond at the PPG plant and then to the plant’s cooling towers, where it is used to chill molten glass from 3,000 degrees F to room temperature. In addition to reducing the plant’s fresh water consumption by as much as 50 percent each day, the wastewater-reuse project reduces PPG’s water bill for projected annual savings of about $275,000. PPG, which employs about 350 local residents, contributed $700,000 to the project, which also was funded by the Wichita Falls Economic Development Council.