"You Are Drinking What?: With water in short supply across the country, it's time to take a serious look at recycling sewage" in @wsj

By PAUL KIX

Almost 60% of the continental U.S. is now living through drought conditions, and half of all counties have been declared disaster areas. From coast to coast, cities and towns are placing restrictions on water consumption. With the nation so hot and dry and no end in sight, some are calling for a drastic solution: drinking our own wastewater—that is, what we usually flush down our toilets.

Not directly, of course. But drinking recycled wastewater is a relatively cheap and effective means of obtaining a lot of water. If all the wastewater dumped into waterways or the ocean were recycled instead, the U.S. would increase its water supply by as much as 27%, according to a report released earlier this year by the National Academy of Sciences. Nationally, that amounts to 12 billion gallons.

[image]Alex Nabaum

The process for recycling wastewater is more rigorous than for "regular" tap water, with stronger filtration. As the NAS report noted, "With recent advances in technology and treatment design, potable reuse can reduce the concentration of chemical and microbial contaminants to levels comparable to or lower than those present in many drinking water supplies."

Recycled wastewater is also cheaper than other alternatives. Desalination—turning seawater into drinking water—sounds more palatable, but estimated costs can run one-half to two-thirds more than for a recycled wastewater facility. That is largely due to the amount of filtration required: Wastewater has roughly 1,000 parts per million of salt, but seawater has roughly 35,000 parts per million. Desalination is also, of course, limited to states near seawater.

But the idea of recycled wastewater still disturbs many people, which is why it hasn't caught on. Wade Miller, executive director of the Water ReUse Assocation, a national advocacy group, estimates that only 7% of municipalities across the country recycle wastewater—and that figure liberally interprets reuse, including water for agriculture and golf courses. Only a handful of communities actually drink recycled wastewater, Mr. Miller says, including El Paso, parts of Los Angeles County, and Orange County, Calif.

Where the programs exist, they are born out of desperation—which is precisely how the idea got its start.

It began in the tiny capsule of the Mercury rocket, on May 5, 1961, with Alan Shepard looking out his periscope viewer at the morning clouds. It was 15 minutes before his launch, before he was to become the first American sent into space, and he was nervous, according to "Moon Shot," the book that he later co-wrote. The launch director came on and told Mr. Shepard that there was an electrical glitch; the flight would have to wait.

image

The U.S. could increase its water supply 27% if it recycled all the wastewater dumped into waterways.

Another problem emerged during the nearly 90-minute delay: "Man, I got to pee," Mr. Shepard told astronaut Gordon Cooper, who was in ground control. The flight was only supposed to last 15 minutes, and the rocket wasn't equipped with a toilet. Mr. Shepard was told to hold it.

"Gordo, I've got to relieve myself," Mr. Shepard said, getting angrier. "Tell 'em I'm going to let it go in my suit." But Mr. Shepard had electronic biosensors up and down his legs. Mr. Cooper said, "The medics say you'll short-circuit all their medical leads."

"Tell 'em to turn the power off," Mr. Shepard said.

And so the medical team did. A short while later, Mr. Shepard was launched into his suborbital flight, a brave, relieved man.

As space flights became longer, the problem of discarding waste persisted. Neil Armstrong walked the moon in diapers. It wasn't until the era of the International Space Station, with astronauts on six-month missions, that NASA engineers began to think creatively about waste. "We didn't think that we could resupply [the astronauts] with water up there," says Monsi Roman, a microbiologist at the Marshall Space Station, who has worked at NASA for 25 years. "And that's when we began to think about recycling urine for drinking purposes."

Urine consists of salt, water and contaminants, and on the space station today, the salt and contaminants are distilled and thrown away. The remaining water goes into a processor that burns away any lingering bacteria, and then iodine further cleans it. "It's a closed loop," Mr. Roman says—and an inspiration for wastewater treatment plants back on Earth.

Orange County's Groundwater Replenishment System, which opened in 2008, produces over 70,000 gallons of water every day. It is modeled to a degree on NASA's space station breakthrough: The wastewater goes through a micro-filtration process and then reverse osmosis (in which chemicals, viruses and pharmaceuticals are removed) before being exposed to high-intensity ultraviolet light to destroy any lingering compounds. Over two-thirds of the county has been served by the recycled water system since it went online four years ago, says Michael Markus, the general manager of the Orange County Water District.

But it was a long time in coming. Mr. Markus and other water-district employees knew in the early 1990s that the county would soon face a water shortage—and they knew, too, that recycling wastewater would be as much a political challenge as an engineering one. So they hired consultants, polled the public and discovered common concerns. The water officials went to the 19 affected municipalities and gave presentations to their city councils. They then moved on to state and federal officials. Some 1,200 presentations and tours later, the recycled water began to flow from taps. "It tastes like distilled water," Mr. Markus says. "There's actually very little taste to it."

He believes that every municipality should follow Orange County's example. Because, he says, "you're wasting sewer water if you're not using it."

—Mr. Kix is an editor at ESPN the Magazine and writes about science for the Boston Globe.

A version of this article appeared August 25, 2012, on page C3 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: You Are Drinking What?.

"Repair bill over $1 billion to fix crumbling Miami-Dade water, sewage system, report says" in @miamiherald

An internal study by the county’s Water and Sewer Department says deteriorated water and sewage treatment plants, along with aging pipelines, will require more than $1 billion for immediate repairs. A massive, five-month internal study by the county’s Water & Sewer Department shows a vast deterioration of water and sewage treatment plants, and aging pipelines, and says more than $1 billion is needed immediately for repairs.

A massive, five-month internal study by the county’s Water & Sewer Department shows a vast deterioration of water and sewage treatment plants, and aging pipelines, and says more than $1 billion is needed immediately for repairs.
TIM CHAPMAN / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

By Charles Rabin

crabin@MiamiHerald.com

Miami-Dade County’s three main water treatment plants and nearly 14,000 miles of pipelines are so outdated it would take more than $1.1 billion just to replace the “most deteriorated, vulnerable sections” of the system, a newly released internal study shows.

Corrosion is so pervasive in the county’s water and sewage-treatment plants, and pipes that move water and sewage, that initial repairs could take from three to eight years, the five-month study found.

Each day 300 million gallons of waste and 459 million gallons of drinking water pass through the county’s system — the 10th largest water-and-sewer utility in the nation.

“The infrastructure we have out there is aged,” said John Renfrow, director of the water and sewer department. “Many of the pipes with leaks out there were built at the same time. It reminds me of an apartment where all the lights are put in at the same time, and you know how all the lights go out at the same time.”

Federal regulators told the county two months ago that it must perform repairs and upgrades. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice, along with the state Department of Environmental Protection, are expected to take another four months discussing with Miami-Dade how to fix and pay for a system that Renfrow said is “being held together by chewing gum.”

The study, requested by Commissioner Barbara Jordan, shows the majority of the initial fixes — about $736 million of immediate work — is needed for sewer lines. Water lines would take another $364 million to repair.

The county’s main water treatment in Hialeah, and two sewage plants, on Virginia Key and in South Miami-Dade, are 56, 45 and 87 years old, respectively.

Fixing wire and concrete erosion in pipes would cost about $10 million, and fixing water mains, tanks and pumps would cost another $129.4 million, the study estimated.

Using Hialeah’s John E. Preston water treatment plant as a typical example, the report noted that it “has numerous mechanical, electrical and process components which have exceeded the end of their useful economic service lives, which is usually 20 years.” A picture in the report shows a collapsed interior wall in the plant, which has been in operation since 1966.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said not much in the report surprised him.

Gimenez, Renfrow and several commissioners agree it’s going to take a combination of rate hikes, grants and revenue bonds to get the system up to date.

They said a budget decision to forego borrowing $25 million from the water and sewer coffers this year is a good start. That money, if left untouched each year unlike in the past, when it was moved to the county’s general fund, could pay the debt service on a $300 million bond, they said.

And despite not wanting to raise taxes or fees as the economy stumbles along, Gimenez and several commissioners say they expect a water rate hike in the near future. Historically, Miami-Dade has one of the lowest water rates in the state.

The county’s aging system — not unlike similar systems in most major cities throughout the Unites States — is in such disrepair that it has ruptured at least 65 times over the past two years, spilling more than 47 million gallons of untreated human waste into waterways and streets from one end of the county to the other.

Just this week a 36-inch main gave way in Little Haiti, leaving several families distraught and in search of a place to stay until their homes dry out.

Renfrow said his department will pay for home repairs.

“The funny thing is we checked the Little Haiti pipes in June for leaks. We didn’t miss anything,’’ he said. “The material is just old, it’s just going to break.’’

Similar main breaks were the focus of warning letters sent by federal authorities to the county from 2010 through May, when they finally came calling. The letters warned of possible civil penalties of up to $10,000 a day.

Talks between the county and the feds are expected to lead to an agreement over repairs and upgrades, as well as the funding mechanism.

“How it will be paid for will be figure out by us,” Gimenez said.

The report notes that the funding methods are not likely to be similar to the early 1970s when Congress passed the Clean Water Act, and grants were available for about 75 percent of repairs.

 

via miamiherald.com

 

"Six months after sewage spill: Hollywood residents skeptical about canal's recovery"

By Tonya Alanez, Sun Sentinel

6:13 PM EDT, May 28, 2012

HOLLYWOOD

Six months after a disastrous sewer-main rupture dumped tens of millions of gallons of raw sewage into the C-10 canal, city officials say the waterway has rebounded remarkably. City residents say not so much.

"The amount of fish in the water is almost nonexistent," said Dale Miller, who lives in the 2700 block of Scott Street. "We're seeing some minnows coming back, which is good, but we would see snook and mullet and oscars, and they're not there anymore."

The city has spent $938,000 on clean-up and repairs since the Nov. 16 catastrophe contaminated the canal and inundated the residential neighborhood south of Taft Street with rancid spillage and mucky sludge.

Monthly water tests and the return of wildlife indicate a healthy ecosystem, city officials say.

But residents whose backyards overlook the canal say wildlife has been drastically depleted. Manatee sightings, which used to be common, are few and far between. Yet to return are the snook, tarpon, bass and mullet. And swimming is no longer a carefree option.

"[State environmental officials] told us that really within a relatively short amount of time the canal would bounce back, and that is certainly what we've seen," city spokeswoman Raelin Storey said. "Literally, within weeks we saw manatees in the canal, we saw wildlife returning to the canal, we saw birds in the canal, we saw fish in the canal, and so we know that the water quality in the canal has rebounded."

Monthly water-quality test results "indicate no impact in the overall water quality as a result of the spill," Storey said.

The state Department of Environmental Protection is still determining how much it will fine the city for re-routing the sewage into the canal, spokeswoman Cristina Llorens said.

"We had a great little oasis of nature here and it just hasn't been the same," said Michael Medlin, of the 1300 block of North 30th Court. "Hundreds and hundreds of fish were living under my dock, they all died off and have only been replaced by minnows, and I've seen a fraction of the number of manatees that we used to see on a regular basis."

For nearly three days raw sewage spilled into the middle of Taft Street after a 48-inch sewer main ruptured in the middle of the busy east-west thoroughfare.

The pipe ruptured after construction workers held back flows overnight while connecting a new sewer line into the Taft Street pipe, which normally transfers 10 million to 15 million gallons of untreated sewage a day to the Southern Regional Wastewater Treatment plant at the east end of Taft Street.

"The work was not able to be completed in the overnight hours as they anticipated and they were late in opening the line, so when all the morning flows started there was a tremendous amount of pressure in the line and then we had the rupture," Storey said.

City officials say the city had no choice but to divert the sewage into the canal to prevent flooding in the homes on North 31st Road.

In a Feb. 14 memo to city commissioners, Assistant City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark suggested holding the contractor, GlobeTec Construction LLC, responsible.

"The city took the stance of remediating as quickly as possible with the intentions of filing claims against the contractor's insurance," she wrote. "The City Attorney's Office is fully prepared to file suit should that course of action become necessary."

The city now is awaiting the results of a claim GlobeTec has submitted to its insurance company, Storey said. GlobeTec did not respond to two telephone message left at its Deerfield Beach office.

The city now is about midway through an estimated two-month project to strengthen the ruptured pipe. By inserting 1,300 feet of lining into the pipe, the city hopes to safeguard against any future breaks in other sections of the pipe that may have been weakened when pressure built up before the rupture.

While the work is under way, drivers should expect intermittent lane closures and narrowed lanes when traveling on Taft Street from the railroad tracks west of Interstate 95 to North 31st Road. The project should be completed in July, Storey said.

In the aftermath of the spill, the city hired a contractor to clean the canal and the yards of two dozen flooded homes. The contractor pressure-washed lawns, fences, driveways and sidewalks with disinfectant. They scrubbed and tested the water as required by the state DEP and took soil samples. They installed nine aerating pumps along the canal to pump oxygen to the bottom of the water and speed up the breakdown of fecal matter.

So far, the costs tally up to $938,000, including hotel rooms for displaced residents, clean up of the pool at the YMCA, canal remediation and aeration, and pipeline and street repairs.

"It's a terrible environmental disaster that never should have happened, but once it did, the city's response was quick … I give them credit," said Medlin, of North 30th Court. "Nevertheless, when the canal was like the most important factor in choosing to purchase this home, and feeling like something really important and special had been taken from you, it's a bit disconcerting."

Steve Shepard, of the 2600 block of Scott Street, continues to view the canal with suspicion. He wishes the city would have done more to cleanse the sediment on the bottom of the canal.

Although he's noticed blue crab and shrimp life emerging, he's troubled by the absence of snook and tarpon and he no longer allows his three children and golden retriever to swim in the water, he said.

"We're not going to touch the canal at all," Shepard said. "Pissed off, that's the best word I can use to express my emotion. I feel slighted. I couldn't believe a word that came out of anyone's mouth and the proof is in the water."

tealanez@tribune.com or 954-356-4542

Cost breakdown

Hollywood so far has spent $938,000 related to the sewer-main rupture. Here's the break down of approximate costs:

Impacted homeowners along North 31st Road (includes hotels, per diem, sod removal and replacement of sheds and contents):$24,000

Greater Hollywood YMCA Center:$115,000

Federation Plaza:$600

Rotary Park:$43,000

Land and Canal Remediation:$422,000

Canal Aeration:$100,000

Consultant:$17,000

Police and PRCA Overtime:$25,000

Force Main and Street Repair:$193,000

sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-hollywood-canal-recovery-20120527,0,3629945.story

 

Copyright © 2012, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

"Feds file complaint, demand Miami-Dade County fix faulty sewer lines" in @maimiherald

BY CHARLES RABIN AND CURTIS MORGAN

CRABIN@MIAMIHERALD.COM
 

Almost two decades after the EPA imposed the biggest fine at the time on the county for ignoring the Clean Water Act, the feds are back and talking to Miami-Dade leaders, this time about repairing miles of faulty pipes that carry raw sewage.

In this file photo, a Miami-Dade County high-pressure vacuum truck works on the sewer system in Northwest Dade. MIAMI HERALD FILE

Miami-Dade County’s 7,500 miles of sewage lines are in such decrepit shape and rupture so frequently — sometimes spilling raw waste into waterways and Biscayne Bay — that federal environmental regulators are demanding repairs and upgrades that could cost upwards of a billion dollars.

Authorities from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice and Florida Department of Environmental Protection met Wednesday morning with leaders at County Hall to begin what figures to be a lengthy and expensive negotiation for Miami-Dade.

John Renfrow, director of Miami-Dade’s Water and Sewer Department, acknowledged the string of major ruptures that have plagued the county’s sewage system in recent years, saying the aging network is “being held together by chewing gum.” He added he has sought more money to fix the leaks for a long time.

The price tag, though still uncertain, will easily reach the hundreds of millions and could top $1 billion based on past repair projects. The massive overhaul almost certainly will mean rate hikes for hundreds of thousands of residents who have historically paid some of the lowest fees in the state.

“We would like to think there’s state and federal assistance,” said Doug Yoder, Water and Sewer deputy director for regional compliance. “But this is ultimately going to come back to rates. It will require our rates go up, either to generate cash or to pay bonds back.”

The federal complaints are sketched out in a 78-page draft consent decree claiming Miami-Dade County has violated sections of the Clean Water Act, along with terms and conditions of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits. The report doesn’t detail specific failures, but said state and federal environmental protection agencies “have inspected Miami-Dade’s WCTS [wastewater collection treatment system] and WWTPs [wastewater treatment plants] and have discovered a number of improper management, operations, and maintenance practices.”

Miami-Dade has suffered at least three major sewer pipe breaks the past three years, and a recent internal report shows that three sections of 54-inch pipe under the bay, leading to the Virginia Key water treatment plant, are so brittle they could rupture at any time. Renfrow told The Miami Herald earlier this year that a break in that pipe, which carries 25 million gallons of raw sewage each day from Surfside, Miami Beach, and Bal Harbour, could be “catastrophic.”

He said it would mean “you’d have to close down the beaches and it would be an environmental mess.”

Aging sewer lines are not a problem unique to Miami-Dade. The EPA estimates there are 240,000 line breaks across the country each year as governments struggle to find revenue to repair sewage systems that in some cases are 100 years old. Fixing the nation’s sewer line ills could exceed $100 billion, the EPA noted.

Though the EPA wouldn’t comment directly on the complaint, the agency seems to be focusing on the Virginia Key line and several other pipe lines that have broken the past few years. The county’s system, built in the 1920s, last underwent major repairs in the 1970s.

The last time Miami-Dade was hit with a consent decree in 1996, it paid a $2 million fine, at the time the largest penalty paid to the EPA for Clean Water Act violations. Unlike the current decree, which is looking at old faulty pipes, the previous probe focused on the county’s lack of capacity to drain water overflows. In the 1990s, overflows and spills into the Miami River, Biscayne Bay and canals were mostly due to the system’s inability to handle big rainstorms.

Since then, the county has spent nearly $2 billion upgrading its system, from a $600 million overhaul of the water treatment facility in South Dade, to repairing more than 500 pump stations, to retrofitting thousands of homes with low-flush toilets. Water flow has been reduced by about 12 percent, or close to 100 million gallons a day.

Yet, the federal government maintains, Miami-Dade must spend billions more because over the past decade miles of aging pipeline crisscrossing the county are breaking with increasing frequency.

“The system is getting old,” said Bertha Goldenberg, the water and sewer department’s assistant director.

Adding to the worries, engineers have linked many of the worst breaks to defective pipe built by Interpace, a now-defunct company whose products were widely used in the 1970s. Now, some are failing decades earlier than expected. Over time, steel reinforcement wires inside the concrete pipes have corroded, broken and failed.

Recent breakdowns have occurred in Hialeah — where a 54-inch main break left a giant sinkhole — in Northwest Dade, where a 72-inch pipe burst and leaked almost 20 million gallons of sewage into a canal leading to Biscayne Bay, and in Miami Lakes, where a bus got stuck in a sinkhole after a 12-inch pipe broke. Fixing the system can be taxing, as groups of workers head out at night to one of the county’s 1,041 pump stations, then insert machines with mini cameras to run through the pipes in search of cracks or tears.

Perhaps the most infamous sewage rupture in recent memory occurred in 2000, when the line from Government Cut to Virginia Key was accidentally ruptured when contractors installing new boatlifts at Miami Beach Marina drilled through it. The resulting gusher of raw sewage cost $2.5 million to repair and the stinking slick closed surrounding waters for days.

 

via miamiherald.com

 

Utility ratepayers could save $1.3 billion with plan to dump sewage into the ocean - South Florida Sun

A bill making its way through the Legislature would dump 5 billion gallons of treated sewage into the ocean every year, but save South Florida's utility ratepayers at least $1.3 billion.

The bill changes a 2008 law that told utilities to completely stop flushing treated sewage into the ocean through pipes by 2025, to save coral reefs and marine ecosystems. A 2008 DEP study decided "the weight of the evidence" showed the sewage was harming South Florida's coastal marine life.

The amendment allows utilities to pump a reduced amount of sewage into the ocean annually after the 2025 deadline. They could pipe out 5 percent of their annual sewage flow, which totals over 5 billion gallons a year. Right now, utilities pump a total of about 71 billion gallons of treated sewage into the ocean a year.

All the pipes affected by the bill, which is in the Senate Budget Committee and has passed the House unanimously, are located in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. If the bill passes the committee, it goes to the full Senate, where it would be likely to pass.

"This is done in the best interest of the public, because it's such significant savings to them," said Alan Garcia, Broward's water and wastewater director. "We're still meeting most of the original goal."

A University of Florida study in 2008 estimated that a household using an average of 7,500 gallons a month could pay an extra $19.80 per month if utilities have to shut down the pipes completely. That number would go down if this bill passes, utility directors said.

Miami-Dade would save $820 million, Hollywood $160 million and Broward County $300 million, utility directors said.

The change to the 2008 law doesn't affect ratepayers in Palm Beach County as much. Delray Beach's pipe shut down in 2008 and Boca Raton has reduced its ocean flow by half, and plans to shut its pipe down by 2015.

The original ban also aimed to save reusable water from being lost into the ocean.

It told utilities to find a way to reuse 60 percent of sewage for irrigation, watering lawns and even recharging the drinking water aquifer. The amendment doesn't change that.

But Divon Quirolo, founder of Reef Relief, an activist organization that pushed for the 2008 law, wonders whether utilities hope to slowly get out of the original law.

She cites the fact that the current bill also pushes back a deadline for utilities to have a permitted plan for meeting the law's requirements from July 2013 to October 2014. None of the three utilities pushing for the bill has gotten beyond the planning stages of their major water reuse projects over the past four years.

"They're trying to delay, avoid and weaken," Quirolo said.

The reason South Florida would save so much money if utilities could pump just 5 percent of sewage out to sea has to do with "peak flow events," utility directors said, which are heavy rains or other events that suddenly overburden regular sewage treatment systems.

Hollywood, Miami-Dade County and Broward County say they would have to build multimillion dollar wells to inject that "peak flow" into the ground unless they can just keep dumping into the Atlantic. They all already have wells to inject water into the ground, but would need another to deal with peak flow.

While the amendment is good news for anyone with a sewage bill in Broward or Miami-Dade counties, the change is bad news for fish, coral and beaches.

Saving reefs and ecosystems was a major reason lawmakers passed the 2008 law.

Many scientists say the treated sewage, which contains chemicals from human pharmaceuticals and bathrooms products and nutrients that can cause algae blooms, has destroyed the ocean environment off South Florida's coasts.

The water is screened of solids but doesn't meet standards for watering a lawn or a field of crops.

"When the money isn't there, the government wants to argue there's no need for it," said Matthew Schwartz, environmental activist and executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association. "Meanwhile, our coral reefs and marine ecosystems are being destroyed."

The amendment was sponsored by representatives and senators from Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

But since Delray Beach shut down its pipe in 2008, it has had to open it again on three occasions.

They've pumped out about 1 percent a year out to sea, "nowhere near 5 percent," said Dennis Coates, executive director of the plant.

Still, he does hope to keep pumping that much after the deadline. They wouldn't need nearly 5 percent, but for peak flows it would be nice to use the ocean pipe.

"This change allows us to not build a duplicate injection system that we would use a few days a year," Garcia said. "That gives us a lot more efficiency for our dollars."

abarkhurst@tribune.com or 954-356-4451

via sun-sentinel.com