Wastewater = Life

The recent Western and California drought forces us to explore new innovations because of the lack and need for water.  Water reuse is becoming more attractive mimicking just how water is recycled on this blue planet.  Also it reduces the disposal of wastewater and if properly managed improves our water’s quality.  Especially since how in the West improved water efficiency has many obstacles counter intuitively increasing both water consumption and its best allocation. The “use it or lose it,” allocation system is counterproductive.

No better example of water conservation driven by economic growth than Las Vegas. 93% of water used indoors is treated and then used again either in irrigation or back to Lake Mead in Las Vegas  (Where the River Runs Dry, David Cohen, New Yorker, 5/29/15, pg 58).

Florida has been a state leader in recycling their water. The Sunshine State has nearly tripled this reuse in the last 20 years.  (*Getting Past the "Yuck" in Florida and other States,  Kuwayama and Kamen, Resources for the Future,  no. 189, 2015 pg, 10-12).  If Florida could reuse all the wastewater it could that volume would represent 67% of the state's wastewater capacity in 2012. 486 reuse facilities creating a reuse capacity of 1,711 million gallons per day in 2012.  Of this capacity, on average about 725 million gallons were actually being daily used. 

In 2013 Florida used recycled water in 548 golf courses, 961 parks, and on the grounds of 328 schools, 321,340 residential yards and 39,000 agricultural acres. Less than one percent was used for toilet flushing, decorative foundations, commercial laundry, cleaning of roads and sidewalks, vehicle washing and the making of concrete (Ibid, pg 11).

The National Research Council (2012) estimates that reusing all municipal wastewater that is discharged could supply 6% of the total water use and 27% of all residential, consumer and industrial uses (Ibid, pg 10). 

Florida established a promotional and educational policy to encourage water reuse.  Research documents that water reuse gets better public support when information about water quality and public health protection is effectively communicated to stimulate consumer confidence.  Such public awareness on water supply issues is critical to such best management practices. 

Applying reused water in irrigation and low-value uses makes better sense due to costly recycling technologies that can transform wastewater back into drinking water.  Recapturing and reusing water is evolving because of our dwindling supplies of pure water and increasing demands.  The better we emulate our hydraulic cycle and recycle water the better we all will benefit

Americans use three times more water each day than Europeans or 1,300 gallons each person here in the U.S. Wastewater reuse will become a significant growth industry. In 2003, USEPA estimated that we Americans generated 12.5 billion tons of wastewater each year.  Each year Americans use, discard and recycle more than 17 billion tons of waste. Better tracking of the entire material cycle can provide us with better insights to management our limited resources.