Project #4508, “Assessment of
Techniques to Evaluate and
Demonstrate the Safety of Water
from Direct Potable Reuse
Treatment Facilities”
THIS PROPOSED PROJECT will produce a
DPR guidance framework that water utilities and regulators can use to evaluate the
safety of existing or potential future DPR
scenarios and help facilitate a proactive
DPR monitoring process that is protective of public health. This framework will
include practical guidance for selecting
and implementing monitoring and control tools for DPR. The project objectives
will be achieved through the execution
of three tasks: ( 1) conducting a thorough
literature review and identifying key criteria to assess the safety of DPR systems
with respect to both microbial and chemical compounds of public health concern;
( 2) conducting two expert panel workshops to identify existing and emerging
analytical methods used to evaluate the
safety of water from DPR systems; and ( 3)
evaluating the effectiveness of identified
methods to characterize water quality
from a variety of treatment processes
on the prevalence and safety of DPR systems compared to benchmark scenarios
throughout the country.
Conclusion
THESE EXAMPLES DEMONSTRATE that
potable reuse is happening today, and in
many different parts of the country (see
Figure 4). The approach to potable reuse
does differ between locations, and in
almost all cases some sort of environmental buffer exists. The distinction between
types of reuse is closing, partially because
we are starting to recognize the actual
incidence and widespread nature of de-facto reuse in many surface water supplies.
Solutions, including advanced treatment
technologies and engineered buffers, may
demonstrate capabilities to enable removing the environmental buffer, but public
acceptance will remain a challenge in
some locations.
Reuse is not a one size fits all approach.
It must be tailored to the specific location
where it is being implemented. In some
cases this may mean additional research
questions arise as reuse is attempted in
new places with new circumstances.
With several organizations leading
reuse efforts, the challenge for utilities is
going to be finding all the different puzzle
pieces. WRF is actively coordinating with
many of these organizations to ensure our
subscribers have access to the most up-to-date and relevant information.
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