reuse permit program june 2015
TRANSCRIPT
Idaho Recycled Water
Reuse ProgramJune 2015
Reuse Program Summary•1988 – Original rules for Land Application of Wastewater issued•Permit program is funded by Federal Clean Water and State General funds (approximately 50/50)•No permit fees
Reuse Program Summary
• ~130 active reuse permits •73% are municipal and 27% are industrial permits•Over 90% of the reuse permits are agricultural irrigation systems•Remainder are rapid infiltration
Reuse Program Summary
•Approaching 8 billion gallons of water reuse per year•The reuse water contains ~4 million
pounds of nitrogen and ~1 million pounds of phosphorus
Reuse Program Sustainability
• 2011 revisions to the reuse rules allowed DEQ to issue permits for up to 10 years (versus 5 years previously)• This allowed DEQ to “reward” facilities
with good compliance history longer-term permits when permits expired• This has made the permit program
more sustainable with the available staff resources
Reuse Program Sustainability
•Over the past three years, DEQ has issued 59 permits or ~20 permits per year• The average permit term is now up to 6.1
years and will continue to increase as longer term permits are issued• At an average permit term of 6.1 years,
DEQ has to issue 21 permits per year to be sustainable (130 permits/6.1 year permit term)
Simplot Caldwell (Potato Processing Facility)
Simplot Caldwell – Evolution of a Successful Reuse Program• Treatment in the early 1990’s were unlined
anaerobic lagoons located in close proximity to the Boise River• Current treatment system (started up in 2014)
advanced treatment processes membrane bioreactor and filtration (activated sludge with ultrafiltration membranes) and reverse osmosis• Nitrogen loading rates reduced from ~1,500
pounds per acre to agronomic rates
Simplot Caldwell – Evolution of a Successful Reuse Program• The high water quality from the new
wastewater treatment system allows Simplot to return a portion of the treated water for reuse in the potato processing plant
Municipal Reuse Permits• Municipal systems are split into classes
based on treatment and disinfection levels:
Class E
Class D
Class C
Class B
Class A
7%
22%
48%
10%
8%
What We Have LearnedLand treatment of recycled water is not an exact science• Multi-disciplinary – wastewater treatment,
hydrology, geology, agronomy, irrigation, soil science, chemistry, biology, public (neighbor) involvement, land use issues, etc.• Most reuse systems are agriculturally based
activities and gathering and interpreting environmental data takes time (years)
What We Have Learned
• Ground water quality can be difficult to use as a measure of permit compliance• For reuse systems in major agricultural
areas, it may be difficult to determine impacts from the reuse system• Site specific ground water conditions
may not show impacts for many years