Opportunities And Challenges In Decentralized Wastewater Reuse Applications

By Geoff Salthouse, MSc Engr; Bill Hensley; and Brian Cohen

Water is a critical natural resource that becomes more valuable with each passing year. Two subsectors within the water industry have become progressively important in their own right, recently forming a nexus that simultaneously advances both. Decentralized wastewater management, when coupled with reuse or recycling of treated sanitary sewage, increases treatment options, creates even greater value than when employed alone, and allows solutions to serve a larger audience and customer base. As the demand for water recycling continues to grow and an increasing number of successful water reuse projects prove that recycling can be done safely at smaller scales, the future looks bright for decentralized recycling projects to become mainstream.