Abstract
Both population growth and movement put forth the need for increased regional water supplies across the globe. While significant progress has been made in the area of building new infrastructure to capture freshwater and divert it to urban and rural areas, there exists a considerable difference in the supply and demand of high-quality water. The cost and non-sustainability of diverting ever increasing volumes of water to stressed areas have become difficult to justify. Therefore, a key step in finding a solution to it is to identify alternate water resources. Given that approximately 45 million cubic meters of municipal wastewater is discharged every day in the United States, researchers and water industry planners have identified municipal wastewater as a viable source for water reuse. Given this potential source, an appraisal of the varying qualities and characteristics of municipal wastewater affecting water reuse is made. This is followed by a discussion on different sectors such as urban, agriculture, and industry that are potential consumers of reclaimed water. The conventional and advanced treatment technologies used to treat municipal wastewater to meet reuse standards are then evaluated; and a number of case studies demonstrating water reuse schemes in different parts of the world are described in brief.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Levine AD, Asano T (2004) Peer reviewed: recovering sustainable water from wastewater. Environ Sci Technol 38(11):201A–208A
Stenekes N et al (2006) Risk and governance in water recycling public acceptance revisited. Sci Technol Human Values 31(2):107–134
Agyin-Birikorang S, O’Connor G, Pullammanappallil P, Mohan GR (2013) Recovery of essential plant nutrients from. J Sustain Bioenergy Syst 3:149
Otterpohl R, Grottker M, Lange J (1997) Sustainable water and waste management in urban areas. Water Sci Technol 35(9):121–133
Bakir H (2001) Sustainable wastewater management for small communities in the Middle East and North Africa. J Environ Manage 61(4):319–328
Asano T (2002) Water from wastewater- the dependable water resource. Water Sci Technol 45(8):24
Cisneros BEJ, Jiménez B, Asano T (2008) Water reuse: an international survey of current practice, issues and needs. IWA publishing, London
Postel SL (2000) Entering an era of water scarcity: the challenges ahead. Ecol Appl 10(4):941–948
USEPA (2012) Guidelines for water reuse
Lazarova V et al (2001) Role of water reuse for enhancing integrated water management in Europe and Mediterranean countries. Water Sci Technol 43(10):25–33
Bixio D et al (2006) Wastewater reuse in Europe. Desalination 187(1):89–101
Shi D, Devineni N, Lall U, Piñero E (2013) America’s Water Risk: Water Stress and Climate Variability
Maplecroft. Available from: http://maplecroft.com/about/news/water_stress_index.html.
Wade Miller G (2006) Integrated concepts in water reuse: managing global water needs. Desalination 187(1):65–75
Mujeriego R, Asano T (1999) The role of advanced treatment in wastewater reclamation and reuse. Water Sci Technol 40(4):1–9
Anderson J (2003) The environmental benefits of water recycling and reuse. Water Supply 3(4):1–10
Mohan GR, Gadekar S, Pullammanappallil P (2011) Development of a Process Model for Recovery of Nutrients from Wastewater by Precipitation as Struvite. Florida Water Resour J
Moe C, et al (2007) Waterborne transmission of infectious agents. In: Hurst CJ et al (eds) Manual of environmental microbiology, 3 edn, pp 222–248
Ashbolt NJ (2004) Risk analysis of drinking water microbial contamination versus disinfection by-products (DBPs). Toxicology 198(1):255–262
Rammohan G, Nadagouda MN (2013) Green photocatalysis for degradation of organic contaminants: a review. Curr Org Chem 17(20):2338–2348
Tchobanoglous G, Burton FL (2003) Wastewater engineering. Management 7:1–4
Mohan GR et al (2013) Comparison of two stage mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion of OFMSW. In: George W (ed) Materials challenges in alternative and renewable energy II: ceramic transactions. Wiley-American Ceramic Society, Hoboken, NJ, pp 47–58
Tian Z, Mohan GR, Ingram L, Pullammanappallil P (2013) Anaerobic digestion for treatment of stillage from cellulosic bioethanol production. Bioresour Technol 144:387–395
Haruvy N (1997) Agricultural reuse of wastewater: nation-wide cost-benefit analysis. Agr Ecosyst Environ 66(2):113–119
Judd S (2010) The MBR book: principles and applications of membrane bioreactors for water and wastewater treatment. Elsevier, London
Sutton PM (2003) Membrane bioreactors for industrial wastewater treatment: the state-of-the-art based on full scale commercial applications. In: Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation, pp 23–32
Speth TF, Summers RS, Gusses AM (1998) Nanofiltration foulants from a treated surface water. Environ Sci Technol 32(22):3612–3617
Speth TF, Miltner RJ (1998) Technical note: adsorption capacity of GAC for synthetic organics. J Am Water Works Assoc 90(4):171–174
Ernst M et al (2007) An integrated wastewater treatment and reuse concept for the Olympic Park 2008, Beijing. Desalination 202(1):293–301
Angelakis A, Bontoux L, Lazarova V (2003) Challenges and prospectives for water recycling and reuse in EU countries. Water Supply 3(4):59–68
Lopez A (2013) The MEDIWAT Project. In: Final Conference and Stakeholders Event
Disclaimer
The views expressed in this chapter are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The chapter has been reviewed in accordance with EPA policy and approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mohan, G.R., Speth, T.F., Murray, D., Garland, J.L. (2014). Municipal Wastewater: A Rediscovered Resource for Sustainable Water Reuse. In: Younos, T., Grady, C. (eds) Potable Water. The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06563-2_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06563-2_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-06562-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-06563-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)