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State Floats Plans for Reusing Water

Posted on: Thursday, 25 October 2007, 15:00 CDT

By Scott Harper

The Virginian-Pilot

In Florida, recycled water keeps golf courses green. In California, reclaimed water helps to grow crops. At the University of North Carolina , second hand water is expected to assist in cooling the campus.

But in Virginia, few such projects have taken off. That's because raw water remains ample and relatively cheap here, experts say, and because the state has not passed rules for how water recycling should occur safely.

Until now.

After seven years of delay and debate, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has proposed a regulatory program that officials say will protect public health and provide predictability for anyone wanting to invest in a recycling venture.

The department is accepting public comments on its 43 pages of guidelines through Oct. 9 .

Recycled water is intended to conserve raw water supplies in reservoirs and aquifers and limit the amount of wastewater discharged from sewage plants into public waterways.

Less discharge means less pollution for state waters, including the Chesapeake Bay, which suffers mightily from excessive nutrients found in wastewater.

Utilities and industries that implement recycling projects could gain "nutrient credits" under the proposed state program . The credits could help them comply with other clean-water regulations, or they could be sold or traded.

By definition, recycled water is essentially treated wastewater - minus the bacteria and funk.

It undergoes filtration and disinfection at a sewage plant, but instead of being pumped back into the Bay, it would go to a customer - a golf course, a city park, a factory - via a special pipeline or on the back of a truck.

According to the Virginia proposal, no new government permits would be required. The state would leave most details to those wanting to supply and buy recycled water through service contracts.

Regulators would insist, though, on seeing the contracts first to ensure the product and usage comply with health and environmental standards.

At a public hearing last week in Virginia Beach, no one spoke for or against the program - a good sign that few obstacles remain, sponsors said .

Officials expect final approval in December and a program up and going early next year .

"This will do much to encourage water reuse in Virginia," said Tom Walker , a member of the State Water Control Board who also acted as a hearing officer at the sparsely attended meeting in Virginia Beach.

At the hearing, the program's chief architect, Valerie Rourke , a water programs manager with the state environment department, stressed that recycled water is not for human consumption.

But, she said, it could be used for many other purposes that raw water now serve s. Those include: irrigating lawns, gardens, parks, farms and golf courses; fighting fires; washing cars; controlling dust; cooling industrial equipment and towers; making concrete; and cleaning streets.

Livestock could drink reclaimed water if it has undergone rigorous treatment and filtration, according to the proposed rules, and farmers could spray it on certain crops.

Twenty-four other states have adopted reclamation programs, and Virginia borrows liberally from them.

The Hampton Roads Sanitation District , which already is supplying recycled water to a Yorktown oil refinery despite a lack of state ground rules, has been closely monitoring the proposed program.

"Our overall impression is positive," said George Kennedy , an environmental scientist with the district , which wants to sell more recycled water across the region.

The district is working with the Navy to bring up to 14 million gallons of recycled water a day to the Dam Neck annex of Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, Kennedy said. The new system would help heat and cool buildings at Dam Neck, replacing an outdated steam plant there, he said.

The city of Norfolk faces a quandary with recycled water. Norfolk owns nine reservoirs in Hampton Roads and sells raw water to more than 800,000 customers. So it does not want to lose that business.

But it also does not want to miss an opportunity with a new product, said Melanie Pesola, a spokeswoman for the city's Utilities Department.

Norfolk is working with the Sanitation District on a "potential partnership," she said, to provide recycled water through its water- distribution network. Customers could include Norfolk Naval Station, Old Dominion University and Lambert's Point Golf Club , next door to a district sewage plant.

Before moving forward, Pesola said, Norfolk wants to see how the state program emerges. "That's really the key," she said.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com

Source: Virginian - Pilot

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