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All water we consume was once wastewater and all the water we use will become wastewater and the cycle continues. Advanced treatment technologies allow us to produce purified water from wastewater directly through a multi-barrier process.
First, let's chat about de facto wastewater reuse, which inadvertently occurs in many communities.
DE FACTO WATER REUSE
The watersheds that provide water for communities are often incredibly interconnected. For example, in the image above, there are two communities that utilize the same river for their drinking water and wastewater discharge. In this diagram, DWTP stands for drinking water treatment plant and WWTP stands for wastewater treatment plant. The upstream community (on the left) pulls water from the river, treats it, then distributes it to users. Then, the wastewater is collected, treated, and discharged back into the river. Downstream (to the right), the second community pulls up river water that has been impacted by wastewater discharge from the upstream community to treat it into drinking water. The water is used and then treated as wastewater and discharged again into the river and this cycle continues. This is an example of indirect de facto potable reuse. Indirect refers to the fact that the treated wastewater enters an environmental buffer (the river) before being treated for drinking water.
Now, let's think about what would change if these two communities both participated in direct potable reuse. Direct reuse means that the water will not enter an environmental buffer before being treated for potable uses, rather, the water will be directly treated from wastewater to drinking water.