Today's centralized model of wastewater treatment is expensive, energy intensive, complex, wasteful, and damaging to the nation’s freshwater, estuarine and marine ecosystems. Conversely, there are new innovative decentralized approaches to wastewater management that are energy efficient, cost effective and protective of the environment. The decentralized model also provides greater opportunities for water conservation and water reuse, thereby providing viable solutions to increasing water shortages. Critics of decentralized treatment and reuse argue that public health may not be adequately protected with distributed systems. Many decentralized treatment and reuse projects have relied on membrane bioreactors (MBRs), advanced treatment systems that provide excellent treatment performance but at very high energy and operations costs. Recently advanced wetland treatment systems have been used as energy efficient and cost effective treatment technology for water reuse in urban and rural locations. These systems provide performance equivalent to MBRs, with much lower capital and operating costs. Tidal-flow wetlands are modular energy-efficient advanced wetland treatment systems that utilize plants, microbial fixed-film ecosystems and innovative fill-and-drain "tidal cycling" to enhance aerobic and anoxic treatment processes. The ill-and-drain process allows the wetland footprint to be radically reduced, making these systems suitable for urban locations and larger flow rates. This presentation will provide in-depth information on the design, operation, and performance of recent advanced wetland treatment systems for reuse. Case studies will be presented from a Marine Corps base in San Diego, a school system in North Carolina, the headquarters facility of the Port of Portland at PDX, a pineapple plantation for Dole Foods in Hawaii, a CAFO pilot study in California, and the new headquarters for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission in downtown San Francisco. Case studies cover a spectrum of wastewater concentrations and a number of water reuse applications, including irrigation, toilet flushing, and cooling tower make-up. Third-party performance data, including a recent CDC analysis of one of the case study sites, is used to address questions regarding public health of decentralized treatment and reuse. Regulatory challenges and solutions to achieving safe and cost effective reuse will be discussed.
This year the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) has added a new way to participate in the Call for Abstracts process for the Annual Educational Conference (AEC) & Exhibition. It is called, "Be a voice" and it gives you the opportunity to tell us what you’d like to experience at the AEC. Tell us topics you’d like to hear about and speakers you’d like to see. Review abstracts and provide input.
Help NEHA develop a training and education experience that continues to advance the proficiency of the environmental health profession AND helps create bottom line improvements for your organization!
It really is good to know that there are now a lot of equipment and technology for waste water but I think that what a lot of people needs to understand is that we can't just rely on such technology for our water supply. We have to make sure that we care and use water right now.
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