The researchers outlined their findings in a recent paper,
"Drought, and the conservation strategies that are often enacted in response to it, both likely limit the role reuse may play in improving local water supply reliability," wrote Quynh K. Tran, a UCR Ph.D. student in chemical and environmental engineering; David Jassby, associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering; and Kurt Schwabe, professor of environmental economics and policy.
In the past, recycled water was only applied to areas such as low-value crops and median strips, Schwabe said. Recently, however, it has been considered safe to drink provided it either undergoes multiple rounds of treatment to remove concentrations of salts, nutrients, and other contaminants, or is injected into the ground and pumped back out later.
The United States reuses between 10 percent and 15 percent of its wastewater. In regions like Southern California, where effluent flows from inland communities down the Santa Ana River Basin and toward the coast, indoor residential conservation can limit downstream water supplies.
"You often hear it never stops raining at a wastewater treatment plant, meaning the influent from households will continue to flow regardless of whether we're in a drought or not," Schwabe said. "It may be true that it will continue to 'rain,' but the quantity of flow can be severely impacted by drought and indoor conservation efforts, which has implications for the reliability of the system, especially when it comes to downstream or end users of the treated wastewater."
Schwabe added the problem is pervasive in linked systems of wastewater reuse.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-residential-drought-hinder-wastewater-reuse.html#jCp
