Water Reuse Issues and Policy

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Water Reuse Issues and Policy

• Adam Conner
• April 30, 2007

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What is water reuse?

• Fundamentally, it is the practice of using a
  portion of diverted water multiple times by
  multiple users at multiple locations

• Direct reuse refers to the form of reuse
  characterized by transport via pipes or canals

• Indirect reuse the use of natural bodies of
  water (usually rivers/streams, but also
  lakes/reservoirs and aquifers) to transport
  and/or purify reclaimed water, also called bed
  and banks and ASR

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Why water reuse?

• Combination of rising demand and static supply
  forcing water managers to find new solutions

• Financial feasibility, compared to importing
  water

• Mends a hydrologic cycle broken in urban areas by
  pollution and overdrafting

• Only 15 of water in urban settings is required
  to be of potable quality

• Reclaimed water is often significantly cheaper
  than public water supply

• Interbasin transfers run the risk of transferring
  not only water, but invasive species and
  pollutants

• Ecological benefits

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Applications for water reuse

• Major customers of reused water are landscape
  irrigation users
• Reclaimed water is high in nutrients and cheaper
  than local municipal supply

• Golf courses, schools, parks, highway medians and
  shoulders, residential landscape irrigation are
  among the top users
• Tucson, AZ actually mandates that new golf
  courses or turf facilities larger than 10 acres
  use reclaimed water

• Industrial plants and thermo-cooling are also big
  users (although recycled water is a more
  appealing alternative)

• Fire protection, fountains, car washes, toilet
  and urinal flushing

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History of reuse

• Golden Gate Bridge Park, early 1900s

• Grand Canyon Village, AZ
• 1926 water managers realized the value of
  effluent derived from newly discovered
  groundwater, began treating it and applying it to
  landscape irrigation and toilet flushing

• Bethlehem Steel Company
• 1942 one of the first large-scale reuse
  projects, in which 100 mgd of sludge was
  transported 4.5 miles for cooling purposes
• Project helped in relieving the stress on water
  supply of the area, and improved the water
  quality near the wastewater treatment plant

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History of reuse, cont.

• St. Petersburg, FL
• 1969 became the first municipality to adopt
  direct reuse
• Not actually designed to create water, but to
  lower treatment costs, in response to higher
  treatment standards passed in the late 60s

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Direct reuse issues

• Equity
• Essentially, water reuse allows one user to delay
  the need to pursue additional resources while
  forcing another (or many others) to do so sooner
  rather than later
• Moral equity is the basis for many legal statutes

• Legal
• Direct reuse has the potential to undermine the
  prior appropriation system by depriving some
  users of their allotted water
• One of these users is the environment

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Direct reuse issues, cont.

• Financial/Institutional
• Reuse projects require a substantial amount of
  capital, and must be a cost-effective option
• City of Phoenix and Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant

• PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE/HEALTH
• Reusing treated wastewater has a negative
  perception
• Although less scrutiny towards non-potable reuse,
  there are still areas where it is frowned upon
• Agricultural irrigation is still handled
  cautiously

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Direct reuse issues, cont.

• Potable reuse is much higher risk, therefore
  water utilities, regulatory agencies, the
  scientific community and the public have
  stigmatized it

• Prohibited in most states

• Propaganda such as toilet-to-tap and sewage
  beverage

• Public education and confidence in water utility
  competence are paramount

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Indirect reuse issues

• Economic feasibility
• Relates to equity
• Reused water might not be put to the most
  economically efficient use
• Should profitability be a criteria for indirect
  reuse permits?

• Marketing
• Can a large water user, such as a municipality or
  industry, sell its treated effluent using the bed
  and banks of a river?

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Example Dallas and Houston

• Dallas 250 gpcd, 36 inches/year

• Houston 170 gpcd, 50 inches/year

• Highland Park 8,800 pop., 96 Caucasian, median
  household income 146,900 and median real estate
  value 915,700, 388 gpcd

• Garland 170 gpcd

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Texas Direct Reuse Policy

• Effective 2-12-97

• Reuse of untreated effluent is prohibited (TNRCC
  210.22(a))

• Food crops to be consumed raw cannot be spray
  irrigated (210.22(b))

• Reclaimed water cannot be utilized in a way that
  degrades groundwater quality (210.22(d))

• Storage ponds for reclaimed water cannot be
  located within the floodway (210.23(a))

• All initial holding ponds must be lined properly
  in accordance with 210.23(c,d), which are
  designed to prevent leaking into groundwater

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Texas Direct Reuse Policy, cont.

• Irrigators must apply reclaimed water efficiently
  and avoid excess application that might lead to
  runoff or percolation (210.24(a))

• Irrigation of fields in which grazing occurs
  among animals milked for human consumption must
  be conducted in a manner which avoids contact
  with such animals (210.24(c)(2))

• Reclaimed water may not be used in swimming
  pools, hot tubs, wading pools or other locations
  of contact recreation (210.24(c)(3)(B))

• Reclaimed water may not be applied when the
  ground is water saturated or frozen
  (210.24(d)(6))

• Controls must be implemented to preclude
  reclaimed water being discharged at the
  tailwaters of an irrigation site (210.24(d)(9))

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Texas Direct Reuse Policy, cont.

• For any site using reclaimed water, there either
  needs to be proper signage (in both English and
  Spanish), or it must be secured from public
  access (210.25(b)(1,2))

• Reclaimed water piping must be separated from
  potable water piping by a horizontal distance of
  9 feet (210.25(c))

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Texas Direct Reuse Policy, cont.

• Reclaimed water pipelines shall be constructed
  following the engineering guidelines in
  210.25(e,f)

• All exposed piping and piping within a building
  must be either painted purple or purple pipe,
  with the stencil NON-POTABLE WATER. All buried
  piping installed after 2-12-97 must be either
  painted purple, purple pipe, wrapped with purple
  metallic tape or bagged in purple. All piping
  within a wastewater treatment facility is exempt.
  210.25(g)

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Texas Direct Reuse Policy, cont.

• Directly reused water is categorized as either
  Type I or Type II, the former consisting of uses
  that might lead to human contact

• 210.33(1,2) quantify specific water quality
  requirements for each type

• Industrial reclaimed water may not be applied
  within 250 feet of a private water well, or 500
  feet of a public water supply well (210.56(f)(4))

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Questions?
For more information on water reuse,
visit http//www.watereuse.org/index.html or I
can e-mail a paper addressing bed and banks
permitting in Texas that I have written.