Contractors Roundup: A Contractor’s Perspective on Florida’s Shift to Increase

CONTRACTORS ROUNDUP A Contractor’s Perspective on Florida’s Shift to Increase Beneficial Reuse

Michael Rood and Courtney Dantone

All water is recycled—there is no new supply of water. With enough time and space, nature can and will clean even the dirtiest water to acceptable drinking standards. Of course, it has been quite a while since nature had the time to run its course. In fact, it’s becoming more and more apparent across the United States that there is a need to further accelerate the transformation of wastewater to potable water.

Many Methods of Reuse

The term potable reuse (PR) is the process of taking highly treated wastewater and processing it into drinking water. A system that uses indirect potable reuse (IPR) takes the highly treated wastewater to an aquifer, well, or other environmental barrier for storage prior to additional treatment at a drinking water plant before it’s available to consumers. A system that uses direct potable reuse (DPR) takes the highly treated wastewater straight through the treatment at a drinking water plant and then to distribution for consumers. Regardless of the process, the water quality is closely monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to ensure that safe, reliable drinking water is delivered to the public.

Next year will mark 50 years since the first potable reuse project was built in the U.S. when the Sanitation District of Los Angeles County constructed the Montebello Forebay Groundwater Recharge Project. Today, the Montebello Forebay has expanded to include several water reclamation plants and spreading basins covering nearly 800 acres. Reclaimed water used for aquifer recharge can exceed 50 million gallons per day (mgd). Along with the recently constructed Albert Robles Center for Water Recycling and Environmental Learning, also in California, the need for importing water to recharge the groundwater basin has been eliminated.

Florida is the nation’s leader in water reuse. According to the FDEP website, of the state’s 1.5 billion gallons used per day, approximately 48 percent was returned for beneficial uses in 2015. One would think it could be due to all the golf courses in Florida, but in reality, Figure 1, which is from the FDEP website, shows that recycled water was used to irrigate a lot more than just golf courses. The interesting part about this graphic is the flattening of the capacity to produce, and the use of, reclaimed water over the last decade.

Increasing Florida’s Source of Water

The Floridan aquifer system is in a predicament. In addition to providing water flows to springs for environmental preservation, the aquifer is the major source for Florida’s drinking water. A 2018 study revealed that spring flows had reduced by 32 percent between 1950 and 2010. The state is using and reducing the supply more than users— or Mother Nature—can put back. Obviously, conservation efforts will and should be the first option to extend potable water supplies, but clearly there is capacity in the existing systems for the beneficial use of wastewater effluent.

The Florida state government recognized this need and approved the Clean Waterways Act in 2020, which will further allow FDEP to update its reuse regulations, prompting more utilities to implement IPR and/or DPR into their overall water portfolios. Senate Bill 64 was also enacted in 2021 requiring wastewater utilities to eliminate nonbeneficial surface water discharges by Jan. 1, 2032. Whether effluent is directed to recharge wells, rivers, reservoirs, or the potable water system, the level of treatment must increase for Florida to maintain its status as the nation’s leader in water reuse.

The design and construction of potable reuse facilities will be a wise investment in Florida’s water infrastructure. In order to meet the legislative requirements, utilities will need to analyze the alternatives for IPR versus DPR. There may be space constraints, access to distribution facilities, energy-consumption calculations, or local geology that ultimately determines one technology over the other. In the long run, either process is only marginally more expensive than pumping directly from the aquifer or a surface water feature, and neither the aquifer nor a surface water feature will keep up with the demands of today—or the future.