WASTE WATER REUSE.pdfVIP

Presented at the International Conference on Integrated Concepts on Water Recycling, Wollongong, NSW, Australia, 14–17 February 2005. 0011-9164/06/$– See front matter ? 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved Desalination 187 (2006) 65–75 Integrated concepts in water reuse: managing global water needs G. Wade Miller WateReuse Association, 635 Slaters Lane, Alexandria, VA, USA Tel.+1 (703) 684-2409; Fax: +1 (703) 548-3075; email:wmiller@watereuse.org Received 17 December 2004; accepted 29 April 2005 Abstract Communities across the world face water supply challenges due to increasing demand, drought, depletion and contamination of groundwater, and dependence on single sources of supply. Water reclamation, recycling, and reuse address these challenges by resolving water resource issues and creating new sources of high-quality water supplies. The future potential for reclaimed treated effluent is enormous. Although water reclamation and reuse is practiced in many countries around the world, current levels of reuse constitute a small fraction of the total volume of municipal and industrial effluent generated. In addition, to meet their growing water supply needs, communities are considering other non-traditional sources of water such as agricultural return flows, concentrate and other wastewater streams, storm water, co-produced water resulting from energy and mining industries, as well as the desalination of seawater and brackish groundwater. Water reuse provides a wide range of benefits for communities, which translates into creating immense value for the public and the environment. The benefits of water reuse, however, can be difficult to quantify and often go unrecognized. One of the most significant benefits of water reuse is the value created by the inclusion of water reuse in integrated water resources planning and other aspects of water policy and the implementation of water projects resulting in the long-term sustainability of our water supplies. These integrated