Treated and Regulated Effluents of the U.S. Municipal Wastewater to Making Direct Potable Reuse (DPR)

Areas in relatively dry climates often have water shortages and there is competition between municipal and agricultural (irrigation) water use. The problem can be alleviated by using the water twice, first for the cities and then for agriculture after the municipal wastewater has been properly treated. There are now two sets of water quality standards for irrigation with wastewater: a stringent set for developed countries, and a less stringent set for developing countries. Also, more and more cities will have to use their wastewater internally for irrigation of parks, etc., and even for drinking. The latter requires advanced wastewater treatment. Part of this treatment can be supplied inexpensively by a groundwater recharge and recovery system, which also provides storage and enhances the aesthetics of direct potable reuse of wastewater by breaking the pipe-to-pipe connection. The renovated water from a recharge or “soil-aquifer treatment” system generally can be used as such for unrestricted irrigation, but potable use requires additional treatment.

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Atrazine Removal from Municipal Wastewater Using a Membrane Bioreactor

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17072567 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (7) ◽

pp. 2567

Author(s):

Mohanad Kamaz ◽

Steven M. Jones ◽

Xianghong Qian ◽

Michael J. Watts ◽

Wen Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Emerging Contaminants ◽

Potable Water ◽

Municipal Wastewater ◽

The United States ◽

Synthetic Wastewater ◽

Attractive Alternative ◽

Potable Reuse ◽

Treatment Facilities ◽

Direct Potable Reuse

As the demand for potable water increases, direct potable reuse of wastewater is an attractive alternative method to produce potable water. However, implementation of such a process will require the removal of emerging contaminants which could accumulate in the drinking water supply. Here, the removal of atrazine, a commonly used herbicide, has been investigated. Using real and synthetic wastewater, as well as sludge from two wastewater treatment facilities in the United States in Norman, Oklahoma and Fayetteville, Arkansas, atrazine removal has been investigated. Our results indicate that about 20% of the atrazine is removed by adsorption onto the particulate matter present. Significant biodegradation of atrazine was only observed under aerobic conditions for sludge from Norman, Oklahoma. Next-generation sequencing of the activated sludge revealed the abundance of Noncardiac with known atrazine degradation pathways in the Norman aerobic sludge, which is believed to be responsible for atrazine biodegradation in our study. The detection of these bacteria could also be used to determine the likelihood of biodegradation of atrazine for a given wastewater treatment facility.

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