November 5, 2018
Washington Update
WateReuse Leads Stakeholders in Urging $250 Million Reauthorization for Title XVI-WINN
WateReuse Association Offers Support to Army Corps of Engineers on New Water Reuse Provisions
EPA Invites Water Recycling Projects to Apply for WIFIA Loans
The U.S Environmental Protection Agency invited three WateReuse Association members – the City of Los Angeles, Inland Empire Utilities Agency (CA), and Pinellas County Utilities (FL) – to apply for Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loans. Together, the three agencies will receive WIFIA loans of approximately $336 million to help finance water recycling infrastructure. EPA received 62 letters of interest from both public and private entities in response to the 2018 WIFIA Notice of Funding Availability After a statutorily required review process, 39 prospective borrowers’ projects were selected to submit applications for loans. In total, the selected borrowers will receive WIFIA loans of up to $5 billion to help finance over $10 billion in water infrastructure investments and create up to 155,000 jobs.
State Updates and Member Profiles
Welcome New Member!
The WateReuse Association welcomes the following new member:
Arizona: Peoria Moves Forward with Potable Reuse
WateReuse Association member the City of Peoria recently greenlit a $2.2 million project to recharge its groundwater aquifers with purified water. The project is designed to support the water supply in an area threatened by drought, rising demand, and climate change. Although new rules in Arizona would allow Peoria to send purified water directly to the drinking water treatment plant, the community decided to replenish the aquifers instead. Read More.
Colorado: WateReuse Colorado Releases Technical Memorandums on DPR
WateReuse Colorado released three technical memorandums from the “Advancing Direct Potable Reuse to Optimize Water Supplies and Meet Future Demands” project developed to advance direct potable reuse (DPR) in Colorado. The project assembled stakeholders including regulators, utility providers, consultants, and advocacy groups to address the regulatory, public outreach and perception, and technical hurdles that Colorado will face when implementing DPR. The technical memorandums on each topic are available in the links below, as well as an executive summary with an overview of the project.
- TM1: Regulatory Development
- TM2: Communications and Outreach Plan
- TM3: Treatment Train Planning Tools and Case Studies
- Executive Summary
Florida: Altamonte Springs Purifying Water from Sewers, Storms
WateReuse Association member the City of Altamonte Springs is emerging as a leader in advancing water purification with its pureAlta demonstration project that is turning 30 million gallons of wastewater and stormwater into drinking water each day. The project’s treatment train produces water that meets or exceeds drinking water standards, without the use of a traditional reverse osmosis step that can be particularly costly for inland communities that cannot easily dispose of the leftover salty concentrate. The project also serves as a model for the Florida Potable Reuse Commission as it develops a regulatory framework for potable reuse in Florida. Read More.
Online Member Resources
Flyer Illustrates Economic Value of Recycled Water
Did you know that 70% of the world’s internet traffic moves through servers in Loudoun County, VA that are cooled with recycled water? Or that Orange Country, CA produces enough purified water to meet the drinking water needs of more than 850,000 people? View and share Water Reuse: Transforming Water, Sustaining Our Future, a two page flyer that explains the benefits of water reuse on one side and presents infographics illustrating the economic value of recycled water for communities across the country on the other side. Visit the WateReuse website to view other public awareness resources, including videos, fact sheets, and reports.
Research Update
Water Research Foundation Seeks Proposals for Water Reuse Research
Conferences and Events
Webcast: Learn about the New Recycled Water User Network
Are you interested in recognizing recycled water customers as community water stewards or strengthening your marketing to potential new customers? Please join us for a webcast on Thursday, November 15 at 2 pm EST to learn about a new resource for WateReuse members and a new membership program for industrial and commercial users of recycled water called the Recycled Water User Network™. The network provides a member-only platform for users of recycled water, including customers of water utilities and organizations that recycle water onsite, and is designed to be a resource for members of the WateReuse Association to market and provide support to current and potential customers of recycled water, while building public acceptance of recycled water in your community. The network provides businesses, governments and nonprofits that use recycled water the opportunity to receive a green designation, Water StarTM and to access information and resources on recycled water. Members of the network would also receive access to the Association’s membership benefits, including access to monthly webcasts, weekly newsletter, and discounts on conference registration fees. To learn more about how your utility can take advantage of the Recycled Water User Network, register today for the webcast.
Webcast: Reducing the Cost of Concentrate Disposal: Using a Novel Hybrid NF-RO to Enhance Sodium Chloride Removal
Concentrate disposal is a major cost for desalting operations, and for many water-recycling applications only partial desalting is needed, often targeting sodium chloride specifically. Please join us on Wednesday, November 14 at 2 p.m. EST to learn about a pilot study that was conducted to demonstrate the viability of a two-pass system, combining an NF pass with a second RO pass and blending the NF concentrate with the RO permeate. Findings indicate that sodium chloride can be preferentially removed from the recycled water, chemical and power consumption can be reduced when operated at system recoveries comparable to typical RO systems, and much higher recoveries are achievable with modest increases in power and chemical usage. Register Now!
Upcoming Events
Webinar Presentation: 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM MST /1:30 PM – 2:30 PM EDT
AZ Section Board Meeting: 11:45 AM – 1:00 PM MST
Webinar: Status of California’s Advanced Water Treatment (AWT) Operator Certification Program
As potable reuse grows in popularity, the challenge for state regulators and municipalities implementing PR is to determine the best way to verify that the operators assigned to operate a PR plant have an adequate level of experience and training to operate these complex and critically important systems, while also ensuring that the program integrates with existing certifications. The CA-NV Section AWWA and the California Water Environment Association have developed an Advanced Water Treatment Operator (AWTO) Certification Program open to AWTOs across the county to address the absence of significant testing on advanced water treatment topics in the existing Operator Certification Program for water and wastewater operators. This presentation will give an overview of the program development, the exams being offered, and training and preparation needs.
Presenter
Erin Mackey is a Senior Process Engineer with Brown and Caldwell in their Walnut Creek, California office. She has over 20 years of experience in drinking water, reuse and wastewater treatment and water quality. She is the Secretary of the California/Nevada Section AWWA/CWEA Advanced Water Treatment Operator Certification Committee and is Trustee of the AWWA Sustainability Division and a member of their Disinfection Committee.
Topic: Recycled Water Technologies and Case Studies
The Annual WateReuse California Conference brings together utilities, businesses, policymakers, and large water users from across the state to examine the latest issues and technologies in water recycling.