On Wednesday October 10, 2018, Congress enacted HR 3021, America’s Water Infrastructure Act, legislation that authorizes several flood control and related programs administered by the Army Corps of Engineers, which also included several provisions to increase investment in water infrastructure, including water recycling projects undertaken by members of the WateReuse Association.

Several provisions contained in the Act enable greater adoption of water reuse by communities interested in pursuing this approach to water resource management. After months of active legislative advocacy, The WateReuse Association is very pleased that that package included Sec. 1164, Local government water management plans, which helps advance water reuse by aligning water resources development projects supported by the Army Corps of Engineers with local water management plans. Many local management plans include projects such as stormwater capture and reuse, water recycling, and aquifer recharge. The WateReuse Association led a coalition of water associations in support of this measure being included in the WRDA package. In the House, the provision was championed by U.S. Representatives John Duncan (R-TN) and Dan Lipinski (D-IL) and Grace Napolitano (D-CA); while in the Senate, we received support from Senators John Boozman (R-AR), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).

Other provisions included in this package that will also facilitate greater adoption of water recycling are listed below:

• Sec 2004: encourages the use of non-potable water recycling to address water demand challenges, particularly for industrial applications, sends an important signal to both the private and public sectors to consider a water recycling approach for their water supply needs;
• 2007:  Innovative Water Technology Grant Program provides $10 million annually to support investments in innovative water technology including water reuse or recycling and technologies to increase water supplies;
• 2013: Water Infrastructure Resiliency and Sustainability authorizes $ 25 million for investment in resilient and sustainable water infrastructure, including water recycling projects
• Sec 4201: Reauthorizes the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act for $50 million annually through 2021, a critical financing tool for water infrastructure including water reuse infrastructure, which continues to provide low-cost financing tool for water recycling infrastructure.
• Sec 4101: requires the EPA to establish a Stormwater Infrastructure Funding Task Force, a multi-government and non-profit task force, to examine ways to improve stormwater infrastructure, including infrastructure that can facilitate greater capture and reuse of stormwater resources.

America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 contains key provisions that will help advance the adoption of water recycling nationwide. A copy of the legislation is available here. 

The WateReuse Association co-hosted a federal agency briefing on Membrane Water Treatment Technology Usage and Needs in the United States on October 10 at the headquarters of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), including how membrane technology is a critical technology for water recycling systems. The American Membrane Technology Association and Water Environment Federation led the effort with WateReuse to plan and deliver a two-hour session. The event was held in conjunction with “Imagine a Day without Water” activities around the United States.

Other federal agencies in attendance included the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy. Multiple offices of the EPA were present to learn more about membrane technologies and their use in water services.

David Ross, Assistant Administrator of the EPA Office of Water, provided opening remarks at the briefing. Ross shared his early career stories of working with membrane technologies in water reuse treatment in California. Noting his passion for the topic, he reported agency intentions to develop a national water reuse strategy and tasked EPA’s Office of Science and Technology to lead the effort. The briefing program included presentations from four speakers followed by a brief question and answer session. Ben Movahed, P.E., BCEE of WATEK Engineering led the program with a Basic Overview of Membrane Technologies – allowing the participants to hold samples of many different types of membranes to understand their composition. Four talks by the experts followed the introduction:

• Robert Yamada, Director of Water Resources for San Diego County Water Authority, discussed the public-private partnership that facilitated the Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, the largest in the U.S.
• Mike Snodgrass, Membrane Technology Leader at OVIVO, presented information on Membrane Bioreactors (MBRs) and their application in the United States.
• David Sloan, Senior Process Engineer at Freese & Nichols, Inc., reviewed the Big Spring, TX direct potable reuse effort.
• John Nichols, Director of Utilities for Brunswick County, NC, discussed emerging contaminants in the Cape Fear River and the utility’s efforts to reduce them in the public water supplies.

A question and answer period wrapped up the briefing where participants discussed roles in bearing the cost of treating water contaminated upriver, advantages of a private public partnership, feasibility of direct potable reuse, financial impact on utilities who are treating unregulated contaminants, and the future use and customers for highly treated recycled water.

In the afternoon, there was a Congressional Briefing on Capitol Hill to present the progress made with membranes to meet the water quality and supply needs in the United States. The briefing started with a review of membrane technologies followed by an opportunity for the staffers to view posters from the morning sessions and ask question of the presenters. The Honorable Representative Brian Mast (R-FL) hosted the session.

The Water Environment Federation (WEF) released a report containing baseline data showing the degree to which water recycling is occurring in the U.S. The research was conducted as part of WEF’s ReNEW Water Project, which is supported by the WateReuse Association, Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA), National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), and The Water Research Foundation (WRF), as well as Réseau Environnement in Quebec. Preparation of Baseline Data to Establish the Current Amount of Resource Recovery sought to establish a baseline for current resource recovery practices in the North American water sector with respect to water, nutrients, and energy. The current status of resource recovery was quantified through a mass-balance approach for all three resources contained in wastewater effluent. According to this analysis, the total percentage of water reuse in 18 states at 6% (or 1.9 billion gallons per day) of the total municipal wastewater production in the U.S.

For this study, water from water resource recovery facilities (WRRF) is defined as “recovered” if it is used for potable or nonpotable reuse or groundwater replenishment; discharged to surface waters (other than oceans) for the intentional purpose of supplying water for downstream use or watershed protection; and/or contained in biosolids applied to land.

The estimates in the study are based on databases published for 17 of the 50 U.S. states that had made detailed information accessible. Of the remaining states, eight reportedly do not have water reuse programs and therefore do not track data related to water reuse; and 24 U.S. states and the District of Columbia do not have accessible water reuse information. Consequently, the data used to develop the 6% number was estimated to be approximately 75 to 85 percent complete.

The report finishes with specific recommendations and data needs for future work to help advance resource recovery practices in North America. Briefly these are:

• In general, existing databases cover water and biosolids end uses at WRRFs. Databases need to explicitly capture information on phosphorus, nitrogen, and energy.
• The resource recovery data summary forms a basis for estimating resources that can be feasibly recovered by WRRFs. Technological limitations as well as financial cost-effectiveness need consideration.
• Other than biogas, little to no information was available on other forms of energy content in wastewater. This data is needed to allow for developing aggregate baseline data at the state and national level.
• Future utility survey efforts on resource recovery should include carbon mass balances to account for chemical energy content.
• Data for biosolids production and uses would benefit from an updated national database.
• Water reuse data by utility and state is needed in an up-to-date national database.
• Develop national aggregates for resource recovery baseline performance in Canada and combine surveys conducted for Canada and the U.S. using survey tools applied in this study every 2-5 years.
• Efforts should continue to complete the necessary information for small WRRFs to help reach their full resource recovery potential.

Additional information is on the ReNEW webpage.

WateReuse Executive Director Patricia Sinicropi participated in a panel discussion on water reuse and national security on October 10 as part of an all day summit organized by the Maryland-Israel Sister State project. The summit was the 3rd Israel-US Water Initiative Round Table held in collaboration with the American Water Works Association, and brought together leaders from the Maryland and Israeli business communities, as well as state, municipal and county authorities, and water management and technology experts from academia, industry, and environmental organizations. Sinicropi provided an overview of national trends in water reuse, discussed some of the drivers behind the growing interest in water reuse on the East Coast, and touched on how advancements in technology are facilitating adoption of water reuse by local communities and businesses. Summit participants also discussed water-related security challenges and technology needs facing the U.S. and opportunities for Israeli technology providers to assist in meeting these challenges.