This is a 1999 report on New water technology used in US. Nope.
They are not ready to drink directly from reclaimed shit water, as
many pro-New Water people are suggesting.
http://www.waterindustry.org/New%20Projects/drink-flush.htm
Flush with water:
An unusual recycling project is sure to raise eyebrows in Centre
County
Monday, May 31, 1999
By Don Hopey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
The sewage authority for five fast-growing Centre County
communities and part of Penn State's main campus plans to recycle
water from the toilet to the tap. It will be the first large-scale
municipal project in the state to turn wastewater into drinking
water. As such, it will have to suppress the public gag
reflex.
Dubbed "Beneficial Reuse," the $20 million waste water
recirculation project floated last month by the University Area
Joint Authority was prompted by discharge restrictions into Spring
Creek, a nationally famous, cold-water trout stream.
"Waste water is always looked at as a disposal problem, but we're
treating it as a resource," said Cory Miller, authority executive
director. "We're going to treat it to drinking water standards --
beyond clean -- so we can do anything with it."
Other locales -- Centerville, Va.; El Paso, Texas; and six
California communities including San Diego and Orange County --
recycle waste water to supplement scarce drinking water
supplies.
State College has plenty of drinking water, but is facing
restrictions at the other end of the water pipe. The solution is
the same, however, and that may be hard for some Happy Valley
residents to swallow.
"We've done enough research to know it can work here, but we're at
the beginning of what we expect will be a rather intensive public
process," Miller said. "When you're doing something this different,
it's important to get citizens involved early."
The proposal is to process the water using new membrane technology
-- microfiltration and ultra-filtration -- possibly in combination
with reverse osmosis units that operate like kidney dialysis
machines. Ultraviolet or ozone treatment will be used to disinfect
the treated waste water.
The authority won't pipe the ultrafiltered waste water directly
into the communities' water lines, even though it would meet
federal drinking water standards. Instead, the water will be pumped
seven miles up into the hills and discharged into Slab Cabin Run, a
tributary of trout-rich Spring Creek, and into a nearby wetland,
recharging both surface water and the underground aquifer.
The discharge location is one mile from the State College Water
Authority drinking water wells. Such indirect recirculation is
common among all the communities reusing waste water.
"I don't think there's any community in Pennsylvania that's ready
to say 'Let's drink the water that was yesterday's sewage,' until
we prove we can make the water that clean," Miller said. "So we'll
pump it up into the watershed and establish a history."
A direct connection to the drinking water supply would be possible
after several years, he added.
The authority, which serves a growing population of 38,000 people,
discharges 5 million gallons of treated sewer water into Spring
Creek every day and is limited to 6 million gallons a day. Any more
would warm the creek water, harming the trout population and, in
turn, the thriving local sport-fishing economy.
"Our disposal options are to pipe the discharge seven miles
downstream, out of the High Quality fishery section and discharge
there, or go seven miles upstream so we get to use the water
again," Miller said.
Miller said the authority chose the reuse option even though it
will cost $6 million more over the project's 20-year life
span.
"This will extend our water resources. Every drop we reuse is one
more drop we're not taking out of the ground," Miller explained.
"It's drought-proofing even though we've never come close to
running out."
But Slab Cabin Run has. Last summer, the combination of a statewide
drought and the pumping of 2.5 million gallons a day from wells
caused the creek to run dry. Local sportsmen rescued trout from
shrinking pools in the drying creek bed and carried them to streams
that contained flowing water.
"It should ease the depletion of Slab Cabin Run's base flow. By
keeping 2 or 3 million gallons a day in the loop, that much doesn't
have to come from the creek," said Richard Adams, state Department
of Environmental Protection regional water management program
permit chief.
The major impact, however, will be on the Spring Creek trout, which
require cool water to thrive. The authority's warm discharges into
Spring Creek at last September's low flow were almost equal to the
volume of water in the creek.
"Trout are uncommonly prolific in that creek, and preserving their
habitat is important to the economy of the area, as well as a
cultural issue," Adams said. Spring Creek's trout fishery, which
includes a special regulation area known as "Fisherman's Paradise,"
is important as a regional, state, even a national, resource.
The project is so cutting-edge that the DEP doesn't have rules to
regulate it.
Similar recirculation projects have been done by some private
industries and businesses in Pennsylvania -- Knoebel's Amusement
Park in Northumberland County heavily chlorinates its waste water
for reuse in park bathrooms -- but those are much smaller and don't
involved reuse as tap water.
"Only a few states -- California, Texas -- actually have
regulations for this type of thing," Adams said. "As we review the
project with the authority, the standards we develop will become
stepping stones for new state regulations."
He said those waste water reuse regulations could also be applied
to the state's new anti-degradation rules for rivers and streams,
which require that industries and businesses must consider all
alternative treatment methods before they can get a permit to
discharge wastewater into protected streams. "DEP is very high on
this project," Adams said.
"If this project proves feasible, it would be my hope that it could
be used in other situations to reduce stream discharges."
The authority kicked off its public education and comment period
for the waste water project last month on Earth Day. Local
officials will review and vote on it by February. Miller said
approval is expected, with construction to begin next May. Target
date to open the first valve is March 2004.
Initially, 3 million gallons will be sent through the advanced
treatment process and then through twin 15-inch pipes to the Slab
Cabin Run discharge location. The authority will continue to
discharge the remainder of its flow as it always has, directly into
Spring Creek. When the Spring Creek discharge grows toward the 6
million gallon a day limit again, the authority will expand the
amount it sends through the advanced treatment system. "In 20 years
I believe we will be discharging little or none into Spring Creek,"
Miller said. "I fully expect 100 percent of our discharge will be
reused." He also expects acceptance of the water reuse plan to
follow the example set when the authority began marketing compost
made from sewage bio-solids-human waste. "At first people didn't
want it. Now we can't keep enough around to fill all our orders,"
he said. "In Central Pennsylvania, once something is proven to work
and it's economical, people will latch on to it and not let
go."
And once State College proves the water conservation technology
will work, Miller believes other places around the state will use
it too. "I don't see it used in the Ohio River valley. Pittsburgh
or Philadelphia won't do it because they have big rivers to
discharge into," Miller said. But some smaller cities that want to
grow and don't have the luxury of a big river running through them
will find it useful. "Some of those smaller cities in the interior
of the state are not growing because they're strapped by discharge
limitations," Miller said. "For them, this approach will be useful.
"And once we show it can be done, other communities will latch on
and use it as an economical tool to attract industries. If this can
provide clean, cheap water, I'm sure they will use it."
