Piloting Alternative Technologies for Indirect Potable Reuse in Florida

As growing demand taxes existing drinking water supplies and rising wastewater effluent standards lead to more advanced wastewater treatment, planned indirect potable reuse is becoming a feasible scenario for more utilities. A majority of planned potable reuse schemes currently in operation or planned to be employed in the U.S. make use of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and reverse osmosis (RO), the fully available treatment (FAT) technology, to ensure maximum removal of known and unknown contaminants. In southeast Florida, specifically, recent legislation will require many utilities to begin elimination of their ocean outfalls and to institute an increase in water reuse. As a result, the City of Hollywood, FL, is performing an indirect potable reuse pilot study investigating the advanced treatment of secondary wastewater for groundwater recharge to the Floridan Aquifer