Florida Water Geek

How are contaminants removed from wastewater? Wastewater Treatment Facilities, Water Reclamation Facilities, and Water Resource Recovery Facilities Water used in our homes and businesses flows through the wastewater collection system  to a wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) , also called Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW)   if  owned by a state or local government, which many are. Water Reclamation Facilities (WRFs) are those  that provide advanced treatment, cleaning the water to a higher level to produce reclaimed water. Reclaimed water can be reused for irrigation, cooling towers, wetlands enhancement or other uses.  Image by  Michal Jarmoluk  from  Pixabay Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRFs) take things a step further by extracting valuable materials from wastewater, such as creating biogas from excess biolsolids that can be used for energy. WRRFs may also recover valuable metals or nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus to be use...

  What is Reclaimed Water? You may have seen signs at a park or landscaping around a public building that say "Irrigated with Reclaimed Water." You may even use reclaimed water to irrigate your own lawn. So, what exactly is it--and how can we use it? Basically, reclaimed water is advanced-treated and disinfected wastewater that can be reused for beneficial purposes. Florida's Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) defines reclaimed water as "water that has received at least secondary treatment and basic disinfection and is reused after flowing out of a domestic wastewater facility."  (For an explanation of levels of treatment see the post on Wastewater Treatment). Reclaimed water must meet extremely stringent FDEP requirements. Strict permitting and operating protocols must be followed. These include operator certification, monitoring and testing; reporting; setback distances, signage, and more. What is Reuse? Florida is a national leader when it comes to...