Coastal Blog — Water Recycling
April 26 2013
The Potential of Stormwater
Know Your H20 Low Impact Development Water Recycling
It’s a basic idea: When it rains, we need to be able to capture that water, store it and then use it later. Today, about half the water from rain that could be used to replenish groundwater basins and increase local water supplies ends up turning into polluted stormwater runoff.
March 29 2013
Sewage Treatment: Moving Off the Coast?
Know Your H20 Wastewater Water Recycling
A combination of required replacement of outdated sewage treatment facilities, climate change adaptation (sea level rise), and integrated water management strategies may be evolving towards movement of sewage treatment facilities away from the coast, as well as water re-use and improved water quality discharge.
November 21 2012
Direct Potable Reuse is Happening In Texas
Know Your H20 Wastewater Water Recycling
In what could be the first wave (first set?) of such projects in the United States, the cities of Brownwood and Big Spring in west Texas are constructing Direct Potable Reuse systems to turn wastewater into high quality drinking water,
August 10 2012
New Report Validates Know Your H2O
Know Your H20 Low Impact Development Water Recycling
An international team of researchers from University of California Irvine, University of Melbourne, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and other institutions just published a report which will appear in a special Aug. 10 issue of the journal Science. The report, Taking the “Waste” Out of “Wastewater” for Human Water Security and…
March 01 2012
No Surprise - San Diego’s Recycled Water is Better Than Imported Water
The City of San Diego’s Water Purification Demonstration Project has been on-line since last summer, and based on a report issued February 1, the purified water met all drinking water standards, which included testing for more than 300 compounds. In fact, it did even better than that. The City also…
January 24 2012
Sewer Mining - Weird Term but an Idea That Makes Sense
Know Your H20 Wastewater Water Recycling
In the area around Sydney, Australia, several private organizations have found a new dependable source of water for irrigation and other non-potable uses - the sewer. The idea is to tap into sewer lines, treat the water to make it suitable for irrigation, and thereby save drinking water for -…
January 12 2012
Don’t Waste Water: Recycle Wastewater
Know Your H20 Wastewater Water Recycling
The National Research Council has just released a report that clarifies what we already knew, using marginally more energy in the treatment process can purify our wastewater so that it’s safe to drink, and do it at a fraction of the cost of ocean desalination or importing freshwater long distances.
December 09 2011
Know Your H2O Principles in Statement to Congress
Water expert Dr. Peter Gleick testified before Congress recently and presented nine targeted recommendations for fundamental change in federal water policy. Several of these recommendations, in particular numbers 1, 2 and 6, are consistent with the themes of our Know Your H2O program as expressed in our Cycle of Insanity…
September 19 2011
San Diego’s Water Purification Demonstration Project Wins Award
The WateReuse Association has recognized San Diego’s Water Purification Demonstration Project for the “2011 WateReuse Public Education Program of the Year Award." Along with examining the use of advanced water purification technology to potentially provide safe and reliable water for San Diego’s future (at less cost and with less environmental…
July 25 2011
Wastewater Recycling Expands in Texas
Both reclaimed water systems (treated wastewater used for irrigation) and potable reuse systems are expanding in the Fort Worth area and throughout the state of Texas. Although this is partially in response to the current drought, it makes sense even in non-drought times. In Big Spring, a local water authority…
July 12 2011
Wastewater Recycling - College Students Get It
A recent opinion piece in San Diego State University's Daily Aztec by senior Randy Wilde points out the multiple advantages of operating the Water Purification Demonstration Project and potentially building a larger-scale version of this facility to establish a reliable, local drinking water supply at a lower cost than ocean…
June 15 2011
LA to Follow OC’s Lead on Wastewater Recycling
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is following the lead of Orange County in implementing both and Indirect Potable Reuse (IPR) system and an expansion of their "purple pipe" reclaimed water system.
May 16 2011
Wastewater Recycling Advances in San Diego County
Know Your H20 Wastewater Water Recycling
An article published in the San Diego Union Tribune today discusses plans for wastewater recycling projects throughout San Diego County and the growing public acceptance of this practice. From the article: "More than half of the region’s major water districts are planning or exploring expansions of recycled water use. Projects…
May 13 2011
Shut Your Tap!
Know Your H20 Wastewater Water Recycling
We were pleased to see a great blog post from Chad Reese, who is an MBA candidate in Sustainable Management at Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco. Chad points out the wasted energy and misspent resources (not to mention the pollution impacts to the ocean) from leaving your tap running…
May 09 2011
Poop to Power in Orlando
Know Your H20 Wastewater Water Recycling
While we've blogged a lot on closing the wastewater loop via indirect potable reuse and reclaimed water use, there has been less attention paid to the solid side of things. Traditionally, "biosolids" have been utilized as soil amendments and have occasionally been used as a supplemental fuel in such industrial…
April 27 2011
Increased Water Self-Sufficiency in the Northwest
Two recent articles pointed out efforts in the Northwest to increase water recycling and thereby increase water self-sufficiency. In Oregon, the Department of Environmental Quality is developing proposed rules for the reuse of graywater, or non-potable water. In Washington, an elementary school in Seattle is taking the bold step of…
March 31 2011
Orange County to Expand Wastewater Recycling System
Orange County Water District has announced that they will expand their award-winning wastewater recycling system, increasing its capacity from 70 million gallons per day (MGD) to 100 MGD. This is good news for local water supply reliability and good news for the ocean.
