Experience
Wastewater Reclamation/Re-use Has Been Tried Elsewhere: And It Works!
“Over 1,900 communities across the country are actively treating, reclaiming and reusing wastewater, managing it as a valuable resource, not a waste to be discarded . The most progressive states include Washington, Florida, California, Arizona and Texas. “ A national database of cities and counties that have active wastewater reclamation and re-use programs is available through the Water Reuse Association.
1. Honolulu, HI and Kauai County: “The City uses recycled wastewater to irrigate common areas in West Loch Villages, West Loch Fairways, Ewa Villages, as well as Shoreline, Ewa Mahiko and Asing Parks. The City also sells the recycled water to Ewa Villages, Kapolei and West Loch Golf Courses. . . . Among the improvements planned to modernize the Waimea WWTPl are . . . upgrade effluent water quality to meet the state Department of Health’s R-1 reuse standards in order to be able to use the treated water for irrigation purposes. ”
2. Santa Rosa, CA: “The City of Santa Rosa (CA) recently announced that it had met the goal of recycling 100% of its wastewater. From May 2008 to May 2009, Santa Rosa treated and recycled more than six billion gallons of water to produce electricity and irrigate agriculture, parks, landscapes, school grounds, and golf courses.”
3. St. Petersburg, Hollywood, and Pampano Beach, FL: “St Petersburg, Florida, provides reclaimed water for a variety of uses, including back-up fire prevention, irrigation of golf courses and landscaping, agricultural purposes, and industrial cooling towers. Manatee County, Florida provides reclaimed water for similar uses.” . . . ” Since 1989 the City of Pompano Beach has been using reuse water for golf courses, parks, playing fields and road medians. . . . Reclaimed water from Hollywood’s Southern Regional Waste- water Treatment Plant is currently used to irrigate public golf courses in the City of Hollywood. . . .Reuse water is also rich in nitrogen, phosphorous and other nutrients which will provide a high quality irrigation water and reduce fertilizer quantities. ”
4. Austin, TX and other Texas cities: “The City [of Austin] has used treated wastewater effluent for golf course irrigation for more than 10 years ” . . . “San Antonio uses reclaimed water to supplement stream flows in its famed River Walk. El Paso uses reclaimed water for irrigation throughout the city. Many Texas cities such as Amarillo, Georgetown, Lakeway, Las Colinas, Lubbock and Odessa use reclaimed water for irrigation of golf courses, ball fields, and landscaping.”
5. Las Vegas, NV: “Las Vegas is implementing water reclamation as one of a number of extensive water conservation measures to manage its demand for potable water.”
6. Santa Barbara, CA (tertiary treatment): “The Laguna County Sanitation District is helping to stretch the county’s water supply by implementing a new UV treatment system to treat wastewater for reuse. The upgraded system will disinfect effluent to tertiary levels, allowing the water to be reused for spray irrigation on edible food crops. . . . The UV disinfection has resulted in effluent with bacterial levels below those required by the Title 22 criteria which is 2.2 MPN per 100mL for total coliform.”
7. San Diego, CA: “Currently, annual beneficial reuse within San Diego County is about 13,000 acre feet of recycled water supplementing the area’s local supplies. Approximately 69% of the recycled water is used for agriculture, landscape irrigation, and other municipal and industrial uses; the remaining 31% is recharged into groundwater basins.”
8. Los Angeles, CA: “Water reclamation and reuse is becoming an integral part of the water picture for Los Angeles County, home to 10 million people. Hundreds of sites across the county are receiving reclaimed water in lieu of drinking water for a variety of non-potable applications, with hundreds more scheduled to be brought on-line over the next few years. . . The idea of reclaiming useful water from wastewater is not new. The Sanitation Districts began planning for a network of water reclamation facilities as far back as 1948. Following the construction of the prototype Whittier Narrows WRP in 1962, four similar plants were added in the 1970′s, providing a total of nearly 200 million gallons per day of capacity. . . . By early 1996, the 100th of the anticipated 200 reuse sites had begun receiving reclaimed water, which is used for irrigation of parks, golf courses, schools, nurseries, freeway and street medians and slopes and other greenbelt areas. ”
9. San Francisco, CA: San Francisco has ambitious goals and plans for reclaiming and reusing wastewater and reducing the impact of discharges on receiving waters.
10. Tucson, AZ (tertiary treatment): “In the early 1980s, the City of Tucson constructed one of the first reclaimed water systems in the country. This system provides tertiary treatment of secondary effluent derived from Pima County Wastewater Department facilities to produce water of sufficient quality to be used for landscape irrigation and certain industrial uses. The system began operation with 10 miles of pipeline and only one customer—a destination resort golf course. Since then, the system has grown to include over 100 miles of transmission pipelines and serves almost 13,000 acre-feet per year of reclaimed effluent to about 600 customers including multiple golf course facilities, parks, schools, industrial sites, and certain residential sites. Tucson Water’s reclaimed water system . . . serves to meet approximately eight percent of Tucson’s total water demand. This reuse of wastewater effluent reduces groundwater pumping and conserves higher quality water sources for potable supply.”
11. Okalahoma City, OK: “Representing more than 100 MGD [million gallons per day] in wastewater treatment capacity and a wealth of operations and management ability, Veolia’s Oklahoma City project is one of the largest and most successful public-private partnerships in the United States.” It has been estimated to save taxpayers $60 million since 1984 when the partnership began.
12. New Jersey: “As a result of the recent drought, approximately 75 wastewater treatment facilities sought and received approval for beneficially reusing their effluent for a variety of uses. Currently 24 NJPDES permits (DSW or DGW) provide authorization for reusing their treated effluents in a variety of beneficial reuse applications. One such facility, the Evesham Township Municipal Utilities Authority received approval to distribute their RWBR to a nearby golf course for public access spray irrigation. They are also authorized to spray irrigate the facility site and are contemplating the irrigation of other properties such as parks and school properties.”
13. Jordan: “The revised standards allow for a wide range of water reuse activities including, where economic conditions allow, highly treated reclaimed water for landscapes and high-value crops . . .”
14. Australia: “Wastewater reclamation and reuse is being viewed increasingly as a sustainable approach to integrated water resources management in many countries including Australia.” See also: http://www.adb.org/Water/Actions/aus/squeezing-wine.asp for an interesting article on how private financing was obtained to achieve the necessary level of treatment and transport of the wastewater to fields where it is re-used.
. . . AND we’re already doing it in Maui: As the State DNLR has acknowledged, “Maui County Wastewater Reclamation Division currently leads the state in wastewater re-use, but we believe that still more can be accomplished. Nutrient rich treated wastewater could be used in agricultural and landscape irrigation and could facilitate reduced use of chemical fertilizers.”