INC NEWS - Durham Offers Reclaimed Water

[RW Pickle]

It's hard to see how this will benefit a great deal of the general public
since you can't use it on gardens (vegetable), fill up pools, and have to
transport it in 250 gal. + containers.  As they mention, road construction
uses a large amount in dust control and compaction (if it's been dry), but
these businesses typically draw it from an on-site source to fill up their
tanker trucks (like creeks and ponds). I doubt they will be driving 10-15
miles to get it.

It would be beneficial for concrete production, but concrete is a serious
construction material that gets mixed to exacting standards. I have no
idea what the chemistry of this water is or how that chemistry changes
from one gallon to the next. But if it is not a constant, then I doubt the
concrete companies will be very excited about doing the water chemistry
with every batch they load. Plus they will have to haul the water in
another truck (tanker) and figure out some other way to get pressurized
water from the tanker into their system. If not creating an entirely new
system for this non-potable water. But I guess it's better (if they can't
use City water) to stay in business that close. I would guess that if they
balked at this and just shut down, within 30 days the City would make some
sort of concession. Afterall, concrete is part of the foundation of all
buildings we build. And to stop building will only cause bigger problems
across the board. I can see it now in the headlines: "DPAC Construction
Haulted Because of Water". Or for that matter, any of the new development
being proposed downtown. It all will need concrete...

Irrigation is a fine use for this water, but here again, unless it's
poured from a container mounted on a truck (gravity flow), the major
irrigation systems are already plumbed into existing pressurized systems.
And without it being pressurized (as potable water in pipes is), gravity
flow is the only use. Durham County has plans to create a "reclaimed
water" pipeline into the RTP for irrigation purposes. With their plan, it
will be a separate pipe system that will be pressurized. As this new
reclaimed water plan is now, it's only a gravity flow resource. If large
facilities use water from an on-site pond, then I guess they could truck
tanker water to the pond. But this will get to be expensive. Here again, I
guess it'll be passed along to the consumer so golfers can play golf
(thinking golf courses use a lot of water in irrigation as an example).

Would pressure washing companies use it? It's hard to say. Who carries the
liability for what it does to the surrounds where it is used?

I sent an email out this past week about Water Management partnering with
Ag Extension relative to "Conservation Station". $90 for rain barrels
certainly is the wrong way to go about getting the general public to use
rain water for some of our needs (like pools and watering edible plants).
In that email last week, I noted rain barrels could be bought for $30 and
$37 from two different sources. One was the City of Raleigh. Why can't
this bunch here in Durham just call and find out where they get theirs and
get with their program? $90 is too much of a barrier for the public to
begin to utilize other sources for watering. Especially when you multiply
it by several rain barrels, it gets too expensive.

It is obvious that this new source of water will help the City save some
water since they do the street sweeping and water plants across the City
(by truck mounted containers), but what does it really do for the
homeowner? Not much unless you have a BIG container and a truck or trailer
to haul it on (and time to get certified...). ALL of the water we use is
recycled in the first place (except rain water when it is captured when it
is raining). We flush our toilets, do our dishes, take a shower; it all
goes to the treatment plant to be treated. They treat it, release it into
a stream and it runs downhill to a lake where we pump it back into the
front side of the process where it is treated for use again. Taking it out
of the loop at any point is fine (except while on the way to be treated as
waste water), but it just depletes water that would have been in the
original cycle anyway. It cuts out a treatment cycle that would otherwise
put it back into the system for reuse.

Perhaps this is a small step in the right direction, but it does little to
address many of the uses of this water for the general public.

On another positive note, Mike Shiflett and I rode out to actually look at
at the two main resivoirs we get our water from. And as the

RWP
27 Beverly


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Blalock, Amy
> To: Blalock, Amy
> Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 12:02 PM
> Subject: Durham Offers Reclaimed Water March 4
>
> City of Durham Offers Free Reclaimed Water Beginning March 4
>
> Reclaimed Water Will Help Offset Business Demand On Current Drinking Water
> Supply
>
> Durham, N.C. - City of Durham businesses and organizations that use large
> amounts of water now have a new, conservation-friendly option for water
> uses such as irrigation, street sweeping and dust control, thanks to a new
> service offered by the City's Department of Water Management.
>
> Effective Tuesday, March 4, 2008, bulk amounts of reclaimed water will be
> available from the North Durham Water Reclamation Facility, located at
> 1900 E. Club Boulevard.  Reclaimed water (RCW), which is wastewater that
> has undergone advanced tertiary treatment and meets state water quality
> standards, will be available at no charge to certified customers who
> attend a mandatory one-time training class and take a minimum of 250
> gallons at a time directly from the facility.
>
> According to Vicki Westbrook, deputy director of the City's Department of
> Water Management, this new service should lessen the impact of the drought
> for many businesses and organizations that use large amounts of water in
> their day-to-day operations.  "Reclaimed water has a number of beneficial
> uses, such as irrigation of landscapes and turf, dust control, soil
> compaction, concrete production, cooling water, decorative ponds and
> fountains and street sweeping," Westbrook said.  "Essentially, the use of
> reclaimed water will help reduce the amount of drinking water that is used
> for these purposes and allow many of our businesses that rely on this type
> of water usage to continue to operate."
>
> According to Westbrook, customers must complete a mandatory one-time
> training class to become certified to obtain and use reclaimed water.
> "While reclaimed water has been disinfected and is clean and safe for many
> uses, the law requires certain precautions to minimize human contact.  For
> instance, it may not be used for drinking, cooking, bathing, filling pools
> or watering edible plants," Westbrook said.  "That's why training prior to
> allowing the use of reclaimed water is mandatory.  We want to make sure
> that our RCW customers understand these safety precautions thoroughly."
>
> Customers who are interested in obtaining bulk amounts of reclaimed water
> should visit the City's Web site at
> www.durhamnc.gov/departments/wm/reclaimed_water.cfm for training schedules
> and registration information.  Additional information on reclaimed water,
> including additional uses, is also available from this Web site.
> Customers may also call (919) 560-4384 for training and registration
> information.
>
>
> About the Department of Water Management
> The City's Department of Water Management is responsible for the operation
> and maintenance of Durham's water supply, water treatment and water
> reclamation (wastewater treatment) facilities, the collection and
> distribution systems (including meter reading) and customer billing
> services.  For more information on this department, visit the City's Web
> site at www.durhamnc.gov/departments/wm.
>