Reclaimed water or recycled water, is former wastewater (sewage) that is treated to remove solids and certain impurities, and used in sustainable landscaping irrigation or to recharge groundwater aquifers. The purpose of these processes is sustainability and water conservation, rather than discharging the treated water to surface waters such as rivers and oceans.
The definition of reclaimed water, as defined by Levine and Asano, is "The end product of wastewater reclamation that meets water quality requirements for biodegradable materials, suspended matter and pathogens." In more recent conventional use, the term refers to water that is not treated as highly in order to offer a way to conserve drinking water. This water is thusly given to uses such as agriculture and sundry industry uses.
Cycled repeatedly through the planetary hydrosphere, all water on Earth is recycled water. But, typically when we hear the term "recycled water" or "reclaimed water" it means wastewater that is sent from our home or business through a pipeline system to a treatment facility where is treated to a level consistent with its intended use. It is then routed directly to a recycled water system for uses such as irrigation or industrial cooling.
The recycling and recharging is often done by using the treated wastewater for designated municipal sustainable gardening irrigation applications. In most locations, it is intended to only be used for nonpotable uses, such as irrigation, dust control, and fire suppression.
There are examples of communities that have safely used recycled water for many years. Los Angeles County's sanitation districts have provided treated wastewater for landscape irrigation in parks and golf courses since 1929. The first reclaimed water facility in California was built at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in 1932. The Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) was the first water district in California to receive an unrestricted use permit from the state for its recycled water; such a permit means that water can be used for any purpose except drinking. IRWD maintains one of the largest recycled water systems in the nation with more than 400 miles serving more than 4,500 metered connections. The Irvine Ranch Water District and Orange County Water District in Southern California are established leaders in recycled water. Further, the Orange County Water District, located in in Orange County, and in other locations throughout the world such as Singapore, water is given more advanced treatments and is used indirectly for drinking.
In spite of quite simple methods that incorporate the principles of water-sensitive urban design (WSUD) for easy recovery of stormwater runoff, there remains a common perception that reclaimed water must involve sophisticated and technically complex treatment systems, attempting to recover the most complex and degraded types of sewage. As this effort is supposedly driven by sustainability factors, this type of implementation should inherently be associated with point source solutions, where it is most economical to achieve the expected outcomes. Harvesting of stormwater or rainwater can be an extremely simple to comparatively complex, as well as energy and chemical intensive, recovery of more contaminated sewage.
Read more about Reclaimed Water: History, Benefits, Concerns, Distribution and Demand, Potable Uses, Treatment Improvements, Worldwide Applications and Acceptance
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