Washington Update
Contact Your Member of Congress to Advocate for Water Recycling Funding
Member Survey: Share Your Comments on the Draft National Water Reuse Action Plan by Wednesday
State Updates and Member Profiles
Welcome New Members!
The WateReuse Association welcomes the following new members:
- City of Davis, California
- Cyclopure, Inc.
California: WateReuse California Surveys Water Reuse Funding Needs
WateReuse California is surveying California utilities to support a 2020 water bond strategy that could include significant funding for water recycling projects. To best position reuse in these ongoing discussions, WRCA is asking California water agencies to share their funding needs for reuse over the next 5 to 10 years. To complete the short survey, click here.
California: Metropolitan, Sanitation Districts Launch New Water Recycling Facility
Two WateReuse Association members, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, celebrated the start of operations at the Regional Recycled Water Advanced Purification Center. The 500,000-gallon-per-day demonstration facility takes effluent from the Sanitation Districts’ Joint Water Pollution Control Plant and purifies it using a process that begins with membrane bioreactors followed by reverse osmosis, ultraviolet light and advanced oxidation. The 15-month pilot is in preparation for a full-scale plant that could potentially produce up to 150 million gallons of purified water daily – enough to serve more than 500,000 homes and industrial facilities. Read More.
California: Ventura Approves $200 Million Plan to Purify Water for Drinking
The City of Ventura approved a $200 million plan to increase drinking water resources and reduce the treated wastewater released into the Santa Clara River estuary. Through indirect potable reuse, the new plant will add about 4,000 acre-ft. of water per year to the city’s groundwater supplies. When the new treatment plant is up and running in 2025, about 1.9 million gallons per day of treated water will be released to the river, compared to the 7.9 million gallons per day currently released. Read More.
Kansas: Hays Overhauls Treatment Plant, Expands Reuse Capacity
WateReuse Association member the City of Hays recently completed an upgrade to the Chetolah Creek Water Reclamation and Reuse Facility, which was overhauled to meet future nitrogen and phosphorus limits. Hays uses its recycled water for irrigation at sports fields and the municipal golf course. Recycled water is also available to the community through an adjacent fill station. Read More.
Research Update
Bureau of Reclamation Announces Funding for Desalination Research
The Bureau of Reclamation has released a funding opportunity for research under its Desalination and Water Purification Research Program. Funding of up to $250,000 is available for laboratory scale projects and up to $800,000 per proposal for pilot-scale projects. Applicants for desalination and water purification research project funding must submit their proposals by December 4. Learn More.
WRF Seeks Proposals to Assess Research Needs for Stormwater Reuse
The Water Research Foundation (WRF) is seeking proposals for a project to evaluate the state of the knowledge and research needs for stormwater reuse. The project will examine variations in stormwater harvesting at regional and state levels and develop a synthesis document, which will include recommendations on preliminary project concepts. Applicants may request up to $20,000 from WRF with at least 33 percent of the project costs coming from other sources. Learn More.
Conferences and Events
Upcoming Events
Launching June 24 -25
Don’t Miss the FIRST EVER WateReuse California virtual conference!
Join us for an easy to navigate, virtual conference experience.This is MORE than just a Replacement Event for the March 2020 Conference, this is an opportunity for our community to stand TOGETHER in these unprecedented times to recognize the good work we do and share ideas for the future. The WateReuse California virtual conference will be available online until July 31, 2020.Join Us!
2:00 – 3:00 pm Eastern | 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Pacific
WateReuse Members: Free
Others: $49
PDHs: 1
Champion Sponsor: CDM Smith
This presentation will give an overview of the COVID-19 research in wastewater that CDM Smith is conducting with multiple clients in the U.S. and Canada. The second half of the presentation will link the findings and learnings from the COVID-19 research to water reuse. For example, an understanding of viral loads, variability among communities and within communities, and online or field qPCR methods are essential to measuring the Sars-CoV-2 virus in wastewater and predicting future reemergence. This detailed, increased monitoring of sewersheds coupled with fast-tracked development of more mobile analytical methods may lead to better monitoring and understanding of wastewaters, as a source for IPR or DPR.
Presenters
- Anna Mehrotra, PhD, PE – Environmental Engineer, CDM Smith
- Greta Zornes, PhD – CDM Smith Practice Leader for Reuse & Industrial Treatment
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Join Us!
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Pacific | 2:00 – 3:30 pm Eastern
WateReuse Members: Free
Others: $49
PDHs: 1
With many communities facing wastewater discharge limits for nutrients or temperature in Pacific Northwest waterways, reuse offers a water quality compliance strategy that can create wastewater, habitat and watershed benefits. This webcast will showcase two examples of how water reuse is being examined to address nutrient and thermal loading in marine and river water sources.
We will learn how water reuse is being looked at by the Bay Area Clean Water Agencies (BACWA) in the San Francisco Bay area to reduce nutrient loading to the estuary through a coordinated multi-utility assessment. With many parallels to Puget Sound in Washington State, BACWA’s planning can provide some ideas for how reuse might be part of the nutrient reduction plan for Puget Sound and other nutrient impaired waterways.
We will then shift attention to Western Oregon to hear from Clean Water Services in the Portland region. Clean Water Services has a long track-record of investing in innovative solutions to TMDLs. We will learn reuse is being examined to help their utility comply with thermal discharge limits.
Presenters
- Dave Clark, Senior Vice President, Wastewater Market Sector Director, HDR Engineering
- Jared Kinnear, Reuse Manager, Clean Water Services
- Susan Schlangen, Engineer, Water Systems Consulting
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Join Us!
2:00 – 3:15 pm Eastern | 11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Pacific
WateReuse Members: Free
Others: $49
PDHs: 1
Lake Lanier is a major source of water supply to the North Georgia region. Many communities surrounding Lake Lanier rely on it for both discharge of effluent as well as their sourcewater for drinking purposes. This practice, known as indirect potable reuse or surface water augmentation, provides a sustainable water supply solution for the region’s growing population. Specifically, in Gwinnett County, Georgia, the majority of the county’s 56 MGD of treated wastewater is discharged to the Lake, which is also the primary drinking water source. This transformation of wastewater into a valuable supply of sourcewater requires careful planning, monitoring, and protection of Lake Lanier.
While there have been various water research projects and planning efforts implemented throughout the Lake Lanier Watershed in the past, there does not exist a centralized coordinated plan that documents, facilitates, and coordinates an approach to developing the ideation, planning, prioritization, management, resourcing, and funding of applied water research projects.
In response to this identified need, The Water Tower, the new global innovation hub in Gwinnett County, Georgia, is leading the effort to create a forum through which stakeholders and researchers will work together to develop a Lake Lanier Watershed Research Master Plan. The Plan will provide a multi-year research roadmap of project concepts to address critical needs in the Lake Lanier Watershed. Funding for prioritized projects will be crowdsourced among the stakeholders and the be the focus of nonprofit, public and private grant applications. The research projects will be competitively bid, with regional and international third party technical expert oversight, and managed by The Water Tower, a 501c3 focused on research and innovation.
Presenters
- Kristan VandenHeuvel, Strategic Director of Research and Engagement, The Water Tower
- Steve Leo, Client Service Manager, Constantine Engineering
- Jeff Mosher, Principal Technologist, Carollo Engineers
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WateReuse Arizona Section Meeting & Webinar
10 am PDT | 10 am MST | 1 pm EDT
Arizona’s water managers and policy makers have long touted the practice of using treated wastewater in many areas of the state and putting it to beneficial use. However, every community uses effluent differently depending on their community’s needs, history, and make-up the other sources of their water resources portfolio. Differences range from the size and locations of their reclaimed purple pipe system, to recharge facilities for Long Term Storage Credits, to exchange agreements, and the next horizon of DPR. What kind of investments are communities making to secure their water future using effluent? How and why are there differences and similarities between these communities. This panel discussion aims at asking how communities from Northern to Southern Arizona, and from East to West Valley use treated effluent as a component of their water resources portfolio.
Panel Members
- Brian Biesemeyer, City of Scottsdale
- Eric Braun, Town of Gilbert
- Barbara Chappell, City of Goodyear
- Kathryn Sorensen, City of Phoenix
- Tim Thomure, City of Tucson
- Erin Young, City of Flagstaff
Moderators
- Troy Walker
- Gretchen Baumgardner
Panel Outline
| START TIME | END TIME | DURATION | TOTAL | Description |
| 10:00 AM | 10:05 AM | 0:05 | 0:05 | Moderator Introduction to Webinar and panelist |
| 10:05 AM | 11:05 AM | 1:00 | 1:05 | Each Panelist gives a brief (10 min) presentation on their effluent uses and how that equates to their water resources portfolio |
| 11:05 AM | 11:25 AM | 0:20 | 1:25 | Q&A |
| 11:25 AM | 11:40 AM | 0:15 | 1:40 | Audience Q&A |
| 11:40 AM | 11:50 AM | 0:10 | 1:50 | Panelist each give a closing remark |
| 11:50 AM | 11:55 AM | 0:05 | 1:55 | Moderator closes panel discussion |
Questions
- Are there plans to build additional infrastructure to increase or change the way your organization uses its effluent?
- What hurdles to you see do drive that infrastructure investment, if any?
- How important do you see effluent as being a portion of your water resources portfolio? Does it play a significant role in planning for the future?
- What role has getting public buy-in to developing reuse projects?
- Regarding buy-in from your organization’s leadership as well.
- In looking back over your organization’s history, and hindsight is always 20/20, but can you talk about lessons learned or are there things about how the way your organization uses its effluent you would change if you could go back, knowing what you know now?
- Are there currently any regulatory hurdles that are preventing greater use of recycled water?
- In 2019 the prohibition for Direct Potable Reuse was lifted. What are your thoughts about the viability of this for your organization?
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Join Us!
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Pacific | 2:00 – 3:30 pm Eastern
WateReuse Members: Free
Others: $49
PDHs: 1.5
Join us as we learn how water reuse is being reimagined and employed in different ways and scales. We will hear from the Portland Water Bureau regarding decentralized on-site non-potable water reuse to address water resource challenges for the City of Portland. Chris Wanner is a commissioner of the National Blue Ribbon Commission on On-site Non-Potable Reuse and will discuss how Portland’s efforts fit into the Commission’s work on advancing on-site non-potable water reuse. We will then shift attention to a smaller community in the Pacific Northwest, the City of Hagerman, Idaho, to learn how they transitioned from discharging to the river to recycling their water and putting it to good use.
Presenters
- Chris Wanner, Portland Water Bureau
- Dan Ayers, JUB Engineers
- Justin Hulme, Public Works Superintendent, City of Hagerman, ID
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