WWEMA Window: The Wastewater Reuse Sales Pitch
By Jim Farmerie, Xylem Inc.
Recently, a National Academies water reuse report was issued on a study sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and 13 other Agencies. The report, titled Reuse of Municipal Wastewater has significant potential to augment future U.S. Drinking Water supplies, goes on to discuss the fact that advances in technology and equipment design for treating municipal wastewater can result in increasing the available water resources.
When starting my sales career in the water and wastewater market, I recall noticing that the potable water treatment plants were located on the north side of the cities (upstream) and the municipal wastewater treatment plants were located on the south side of the city (downstream). Thinking about it, most cities then and now draw their source water from streams that contain wastewater discharged by a community located upstream and diluted by the stream before reaching the next cities intake. Depending on the size of the stream, these cities were practicing reuse (although not 100%) without even thinking about it. Think about how many cities have used the water before it reaches New Orleans.
As we all know, areas around the world face water shortages and are searching for alternate water sources. This has resulted in identifying seawater and municipal or industrial wastewater effluent as viable candidates. Manufacturers have responded to this need and the opportunity to develop treatment systems that will allow communities to use alternative raw water sources.
The EPA study states that “new analysis suggest that the possible health risks of exposure to chemical contaminants and disease-causing microbes from wastewater reuse do not exceed, and in some cases may be significantly lower than, the risk of existing water supplies.” New advanced wastewater treatment systems designed for eliminating or reducing to acceptable levels specific contaminants have been introduced to the marketplace. These systems have allowed communities to meet their need for effluent water quality that meets the needs of agricultural and industrial water users. This report validates the fact that, with the proper treatment schemes available, the wastewater effluent water can be used as source water to produce potable drinking water.
Since there is an additional treatment step to the conventional wastewater treatment process, there is an additional cost to the city to arrive at the desired water quality. However, this treatment scheme cost is less than seawater desalination and other source supply alternatives that have been identified.
What the marketplace needs to develop is a way to make the general population accept this source of drinking water supply. Perhaps what they need to do is borrow one of the manufacturers marketing personnel to help develop a campaign and gain the consumers confidence in the product that is being delivered to their tap. Do we have any volunteers?