CONSERVATION DRINKING WATER EQUIPMENT MARKETS MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER WATER REUSE

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Abstract

Recycling and reuse, in all of its varied forms, remains one of the most robust sectors of the overall water business. Recycling initiatives, from the individual residence to the large municipality or major industrial installation, are rapidly gathering steam. Because these different terms are often used rather vaguely or interchangeably, some definitions and clarifications may be helpful. Most wastewater can be recycled and cleaned to levels where it can be reused for potable purposes, and this can occur in both what are referred to as direct and indirect manners. The distinction between these two terms is critical. Indirect reuse of treated wastewater, or the consumption of wastewater after it has been treated, discharged into, and then withdrawn from a river, or pumped into, and later out of an underground aquifer, has been practiced since the dawn of history. It is estimated that on some of the major river systems in the United States, water is used and reused in this fashion up to 20 times as it travels to the sea. Indeed, it is interesting to note that, as a result of 40 years of steady progress under the Clean Water Act, the treated effluents from wastewater treatment plants is sometimes cleaner than the supposedly ﾓnaturalﾔ rivers and streams into which they are discharged.

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