The biggest challenge for the use of membranes in water treatment is membrane fouling, which limits water flux, forces frequent membrane backwashing, and forces uses to apply chemicals that generate a problematic sludge. The patented use of our novel particles (“HAOPs”) to pretreat water before it is applied to membranes enables higher water fluxes to be processed by the membranes; increases the cycle time between backwashing steps by more than an order of magnitude; and greatly reduces the energy required to process the water treatment sludge, generating a nearly dry final residual. The process enhances the treatment of both fresh and saline source waters and improves performance of membranes made from a wide variety of materials. Furthermore, simple vacuum filtration can generate residuals with >80% solids.