Water reuse is no longer an option for many communities
Population
pressures are placing extreme demands on the availability
of easily treatable sources
of drinking water. Reuse of treated wastewater has
been adopted by many communities to relieve these pressures.
Typical applications of water reuse include the following:
- Aquifer storage and recovery projects
- Total
Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) compliance
- Irrigation of right-of-ways, green spaces and crops
Pilot-scale testing for water reuse applications
SMI
can design and execute experiments to ensure your water
reuse project produces water appropriate for its intended
use. Scientific
Methods works directly with water treatment engineers studying
advanced water treatment systems such as membrane filtration
to assess the microbiological quality of effluent, to document
the efficiency of novel treatment processes and to assist
in identifying suitable water reuse options. In support
of these objectives, SMI provides wastewater analyses for:
- Cryptosporidium
- Giardia
- Bacteria
- Aerobic spores
- Viruses
- Bacteriophage MS-2
and other pathogen surrogates
Water reuse pilot study (Long Island, New York)
SMI
recently completed a pilot-scale wastewater reuse project
in Suffolk County, New York, in conjunction with the H2M Engineering Group.
Because Suffolk County has targeted a reduction
in effluent discharges to sensitive estuarine and marine areas, they contracted with H2M and
SMI to develop a longterm plan for water reuse. SMI directed and implemented microbial
challenge studies
at the Advanced Water Treatment Facility in Riverhead, New York, to determine the microbial removal efficiencies of cloth
filtration, membrane microfiltration and ultrafiltration,
and UV disinfection of secondary effluent using model bacteria
and viruses.
A
key element of the study included irrigation
of a model golf green using the treated
effluent to
simulate the performance of the operational scale system
currently under development. SMI used laboratory-cultured viruses and bacteria to evaluate the performance of the pilot system for pathogen removal and used the treated effluent for irrigation of the constructed test plot. Irrigation cycles for the test plot were modeled after those currently in use at a neighboring golf course in anticipation of operational-scale irrigation following completion of the study.
As can be seen in the image of the golf green, the treated effluent produced by the pilot-scale treatment system was used successfully to irrigate the test plot. Effluent irrigation resulted in a
high quality turf and putting green, and no detrimental effects were observed for the ornamental shrubs installed by the greenskeepers. The results of this study are being used to implement an
operational-scale (300,000+ gpd) reuse system for irrigation
of a Long Island golf course in 2006.
For further information about SMI's services, please feel to contact a project manager at (574) 277-4078.
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