Onsite Water Reclamation and Reuse

Overview of Onsite Water Reclamation and Reuse Research
Infrastructure for water and sanitation is essential for a healthy standard of living and it must be effective in protecting public health and environmental quality while being affordable, socially acceptable and sustainable. There are many situations within the U.S. and developed nations around the world where onsite and decentralized approaches and technologies are critical to achieving these goals. In developing countries, the needs are huge and the impacts to be realized are life sustaining. .   In America today, nearly 25% of the U.S. population are served by onsite and decentralized systems and nearly 37% of all new housing development is being supported by such systems.  In the world, over 2 billion people lack adequate water and sanitation and onsite and decentralized approaches are recognized as critical to protecting public health and environmental quality in a sustainable fashion.

Onsite or satellite water and wastewater systems involve an array of technologies such as bioreactors, soil and wetland systems, and filter and membrane units.  Onsite systems can mimic natural processes to achieve treatment objectives while minimizing energy and chemical use and enabling beneficial reuse of water and nutrients. Approaches can involve ultra water conserving fixtures and source separation methods that can enhance water infrastructure by minimizing demands and maximizing reuse in buildings and developments spanning rural, peri-urban, and urban areas.

Dr. Siegrist is Director of the Small Flows Program, which was established at CSM in 1998 to advance the science and engineering of sustainable onsite and decentralized approaches to water and sanitation (http://smallflows.mines.edu/). The overall goals of the Program are to enhance the quantitative understanding of processes important to system design and performance, and develop decision-support tools for applications involving individual houses and buildings all the way up to those involving large developments, communities, and watershed-scale situations. This multidisciplinary program involves a team of faculty, staff, and students at CSM. Recent and ongoing research has included field monitoring, laboratory and field experimental studies, and modeling to: 1) characterize wastewater effluents from domestic, commercial, and institutional sources with respect to routine properties such as organic matter, nutrients, and pathogens as well as emerging organic chemicals like pharmaceuticals and personal care products, 2) determine the treatment mechanisms that can be exploited to purify water by removal of chemicals and microbes of concern, 3) quantify the design and performance relationships for different unit operations including bioreactors, biofilters, soil units, wetland systems, and membrane units, 4) evaluate the performance of full-scale systems and enable systems analysis regarding performance capabilities and reliability, 5) assess the relative pollutant contributions to surface waters and ground waters from nonpoint and point sources and develop / validate watershed-scale models, 6) develop source tracking tools using chemical and bacterial signatures to allocate water quality impacts to different sources, and 7) develop decision-support tools to aid system design and operation to achieve a prescribed performance.  In support of this research, apparatus and facilities exist in laboratories at CSM as well as at the Mines Park Test Site located on the CSM campus. Field monitoring and system investigations occur at operating facilities in Colorado and at sites across the U.S.

Journal Publications Related to Onsite Water Reclamation and Reuse Research (past 5 years)

Tomaras, J., J.W. Sahl, R.L. Siegrist, J.R. Spear. 2009.  Microbial Diversity of Septic Tank Effluent and a Soil Biomat.  Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 75(10):xxx-xxx.  Accepted and in press.

Lowe, K.S., S.M. VanCuyk, R.L. Siegrist, J.E. Drewes. 2008. Field Evaluation of the Performance of Engineered Onsite Wastewater Treatment Units.  ASCE J. Hydrologic Eng., 13(8):735-743.  

 Lowe, K.S., R.L. Siegrist. 2008. Controlled Field Experiment for Performance Evaluation of Septic Tank Effluent Treatment during Soil Infiltration.  ASCE J. Environmental Engineering, 134(2):93-101.

Van Cuyk, S.M., R.L. Siegrist (2007). Virus Removal within a Soil Infiltration Zone as Affected by Effluent Composition, Application Rate, and Soil Type.  Water Research, 41(2007):699-709.

Conn, K.E., L.B. Barber, G.K. Brown, R.L. Siegrist. 2006. Occurrence and Fate of Organic Contaminants during Onsite Wastewater Treatment. Environmental Science & Technology,  40(23):7358-7366.

Poeter, E., McCray, J., Thyne, G. R. Siegrist. 2005. Designing Cluster and High-Density Wastewater Soil-Absorption Systems to Control Groundwater Mounding.  Small Flows Journal, 7(4):24-36.

Beach, D.N.H., J.E. McCray, K.S. Lowe, R.L. Siegrist. 2005. Temporal Changes in Hydraulic Conductivity of Sand Porous Media Biofilters during Wastewater Infiltration Due to Biomat Formation.  J. Hydrology, 311(2005):230-243.

McCray, J.E., S.L. Kirkland, R.L. Siegrist, G.D. Thyne. 2005. Model Parameters for Simulating Fate and Transport of Onsite-Wastewater Nutrients.  Ground Water, 43(4):628-639.

Siegrist, R.L., J.E. McCray, K.S. Lowe. 2004. Wastewater Infiltration into Soil and the Effects of Infiltrative Surface Architecture.  Small Flows  J., 5(1):29-39.

Van Cuyk, S., R.L. Siegrist, K.S. Lowe, R.W. Harvey. 2004.  Evaluating Microbial Purification during Soil Treatment of Wastewater with Multicomponent Tracer and Surrogate Tests.  J. Environmental Quality,  33:316-329.