A special website established by the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council allows the public to ask questions through Jan. 24 of the authors of a new report addressing the potential for expanding reliance on wastewater reuse.
The report, Water Reuse: Potential for Expanding the Nation’s Water Supply Through Reuse of Municipal Wastewater, concludes that with recent advances in technology and design, treating municipal wastewater and reusing it for drinking water, irrigation, industry and other applications could significantly increase the nation's total available water resources and meet future needs.
“Wastewater reuse is poised to become a legitimate part of the nation's water supply portfolio, although reuse is not a panacea," said R. Rhodes Trussell, chair of the committee that wrote the report.
Potable water reuse projects account for only a small fraction of the water now being reused. New analyses suggest that the possible health risks of exposure to chemical contaminants and disease-causing microbes from reclaimed water do not exceed and, in some cases, may be significantly lower than, the risks of existing water supplies, according to the report.
Many drinking water treatment plants draw water from a source that contains wastewater discharged by a community located upstream. The report calls that practice “de facto reuse” and calls for research into the extent of such unplanned reuse in the United States.
The report was sponsored by several federal agencies, the Water Research Foundation, and nine Southern California water and sanitation agencies.
Access the report at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13303.
Ask questions at http://nas-sites.org/waterreuse/.
