Water Sustainability and Resilience – We Need Direct Potable Reuse

Posted on martes, junio 16, 2015

There was an excellent panel discussion this morning sponsored by GE Water & Process Technologies on the topic of water sustainability and resilience.

Molly Mayo, Partner at Meridian Institute moderated the panel which included:

– Ralph Exton, Chief Marketing Officer, GE Water & Process Technologies
– Matt Ries, Chief Technical Officer, Water Environment Federation
– Lynn Broaddus, President, Broadview Collaborative
– Ed Clerico, Chief Executive Officer, Natural Systems Utilities

One of the main takeaways from the discussion was the importance of integrated water/electric systems.

Lynn Broaddus pointed to the fact that 13% of U.S. energy use is in the movement and treatment of water.  She went on to note that municipal wastewater contains 4-5x the amount of energy needed to treat that water for direct potable reuse.

The heat energy contained in wastewater can help municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to make strides toward energy neutrality.  In theory these WWTPs could go completely «off-the-grid,» or better yet could work in collaboration with other utilities for efficient energy allocation.

The urgency of the drought in California, and in various locations globally calls for immediate implementation of technology that exists for direct potable reuse.  We need swift changes in policy, incentives for reuse, and public education campaigns.

We need to make changes to landscapes, such that they are appropriate for their climates (i.e. large green lawns are not sustainable in the desert)

Water should be priced for it’s value. It should not be cheap to get large quantities of water in Palm Springs, CA for example.

Industrial reuse supports water sustainability, and residential conservation efforts also matter.

Forsta Filters is poised to contribute to direct reuse applications in municipal WWTPs, as well as non-potable water (NPW) land applications for irrigation, and industrial reuse applications.

Today’s panel discussion asserted the that fact that together we can create an intelligent water/energy nexus that will sustain our population.

Check out Forsta’s UF Prefiltration page for typical membrane treatment sequences for reuse.

UF Prefiltration