JEA ponders pumping into aquifer; Utility wants to clean used water and put it back into its source.
By STEVE PATTERSON
Troubled by forecasts it could harm the Floridan aquifer by pumping too much water, JEA is asking whether it can put some water back after using it.
The utility and the St. Johns River Water Management District are looking into the costs and effectiveness of two plans to return sewer wastewater to the ground after carefully cleaning it to a high standard.
One idea involves laying pipelines to carry wastewater to places southwest of Jacksonville where water quickly percolates through the ground and into the aquifer.
The other involves drilling a shaft maybe 2,000 feet deep and injecting the cleaned wastewater into a different aquifer layer below the Floridan. The goal there is to create upward pressure that would maintain Floridan levels, somewhat like slipping a coaster under a wobbly table leg.
The cleaned water would eventually find its way into an aquifer anyway but not as fast, said Karl Hankin, JEA's manager of water and wastewater planning.
"The amount of water we've got on this planet is finite. ... We've probably recycled the water we drink a number of times already," Hankin said.
JEA has lagged behind many communities in using recycled wastewater to irrigate lawns and golf courses, partly because of the cost of laying new pipes through well-established neighborhoods.
As a result, great amounts of cleaned wastewater end up being released into the St. Johns River instead of being reused.
"There is still a lot of reclaimed water that is not presently spoken for," said Kirby Green, management district's executive director.
That wastewater is being viewed as a potential asset now, as the water management district pressures utilities to show how they will meet water demands through 2030 without overburdening the aquifer, their source of drinking water.
Gainesville's utility has returned wastewater to quick-recharge areas for years, Hankin said. He said water is still naturally filtered as it passes through yard after yard of earth, entering the Floridan with no risk of any environmental harm.
But Jacksonville's geology would make that process more complicated.
Most of Northeast Florida's ground contains a barrier, called the Hawthorn layer, that would slow the water's descent, defeating the goal of recharging the aquifer.
To get around that, JEA could run pipes somewhere out near Keystone Heights or other inland points where the Hawthorn layer disappears.
Doing that would cost many millions of dollars, but the exact price isn't known yet. It's likely to be clearer by the time the management district completes a 20-year water supply plan in December.
Hankin said JEA might be able to pour 30 million to 80 million gallons daily into a recharge system. If it injected water directly into a lower aquifer, the utility might handle 1 million to 40 million gallons daily that way, he said.steve.patterson@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4263
(c) 2010 Florida Times Union. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
http://www.waterworld.com/index/display/news_display/142618362.html
Showing posts with label Wastewater treatment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wastewater treatment. Show all posts
Friday, March 19, 2010
Thursday, October 15, 2009
New ideas for a greener future along the river
Green ideas presented at conference might help Florida water, land
Research proposals were presented at a water conference
By Steve Patterson
For the Florida Times-Union/Jacksonville.com
Thursday, October 15, 2009
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ORLANDO - Plans for cleaning sewer wastewater in New Orleans could end up helping Jacksonville's St. Johns River.
A Central Florida project to make new fertilizers from sludge could cut the algae-feeding nitrogen running off farmland and into rivers across the state.
And a system to capture heat from sewer water and warm athlete housing at next year's winter Olympics could represent a new low-energy way of heating and cooling buildings.
Those promises of green possibilities ran through a national water industry conference this week alongside worries about hazards ranging from droughts to bacteria pollution.
"There is a huge opportunity," said Erik Lindquist, an engineer who helped design a wastewater-based heating and cooling system for 600 homes in Whistler, a Canadian resort where part of the Vancouver Olympics will be held. "I don't think you'll find a cheaper source of heat for your community."
Earth-friendly ideas were sprinkled among more than 500 presentations at the Water Environment Federation's 82nd annual technical conference.
In part, they're a reaction to pressure that cities and utilities have faced to meet federal clean-water rules. It's also about the money to be made from good green ideas.
David Weber, an engineer and company executive from St. Petersburg, spoke about his company's plan for selling a new fertilizer made from the solids left after sewage treatment. A competitor with a similar product talked just before him.
Utilities will pay to get rid of their sludge, Weber said, and farmers will buy the fertilizer because it's designed to hold nitrogen on farm fields longer and has less metal contamination. Rainwater flowing off farmlands is part of a set of problems that Weber said wastes up to 75 percent of the nitrogen in common fertilizers.
"The farmer has paid for that fertilizer, and he has lost three-quarters of it," he said. "If he buys four bags, he only ends up with one bag in the roots."
The five-day conference was also a way to circulate research that could affect many communities.
Brady Skaggs, a Tulane University doctoral student originally from Jacksonville, talked about his research on using a kind of iron called ferrate to kill bacteria in wastewater at a New Orleans sewage treatment plant.
That same approach could be important in controlling bacteria in other places, he said. Skaggs' work is part of a long-term proposal to use the fresh wastewater to restore wetlands, where cypress trees that could be a buffer against storm surges have been killed by rising levels of saltwater.
It would also mean the treatment plant wouldn't have to use chlorine-based disinfectants suspected of causing male fish to develop female characteristics.
steve.patterson@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4263
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-10-15/story/green_ideas_presented_at_conference_might_help_florida_water_land
Research proposals were presented at a water conference
By Steve Patterson
For the Florida Times-Union/Jacksonville.com
Thursday, October 15, 2009
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ORLANDO - Plans for cleaning sewer wastewater in New Orleans could end up helping Jacksonville's St. Johns River.
A Central Florida project to make new fertilizers from sludge could cut the algae-feeding nitrogen running off farmland and into rivers across the state.
And a system to capture heat from sewer water and warm athlete housing at next year's winter Olympics could represent a new low-energy way of heating and cooling buildings.
Those promises of green possibilities ran through a national water industry conference this week alongside worries about hazards ranging from droughts to bacteria pollution.
"There is a huge opportunity," said Erik Lindquist, an engineer who helped design a wastewater-based heating and cooling system for 600 homes in Whistler, a Canadian resort where part of the Vancouver Olympics will be held. "I don't think you'll find a cheaper source of heat for your community."
Earth-friendly ideas were sprinkled among more than 500 presentations at the Water Environment Federation's 82nd annual technical conference.
In part, they're a reaction to pressure that cities and utilities have faced to meet federal clean-water rules. It's also about the money to be made from good green ideas.
David Weber, an engineer and company executive from St. Petersburg, spoke about his company's plan for selling a new fertilizer made from the solids left after sewage treatment. A competitor with a similar product talked just before him.
Utilities will pay to get rid of their sludge, Weber said, and farmers will buy the fertilizer because it's designed to hold nitrogen on farm fields longer and has less metal contamination. Rainwater flowing off farmlands is part of a set of problems that Weber said wastes up to 75 percent of the nitrogen in common fertilizers.
"The farmer has paid for that fertilizer, and he has lost three-quarters of it," he said. "If he buys four bags, he only ends up with one bag in the roots."
The five-day conference was also a way to circulate research that could affect many communities.
Brady Skaggs, a Tulane University doctoral student originally from Jacksonville, talked about his research on using a kind of iron called ferrate to kill bacteria in wastewater at a New Orleans sewage treatment plant.
That same approach could be important in controlling bacteria in other places, he said. Skaggs' work is part of a long-term proposal to use the fresh wastewater to restore wetlands, where cypress trees that could be a buffer against storm surges have been killed by rising levels of saltwater.
It would also mean the treatment plant wouldn't have to use chlorine-based disinfectants suspected of causing male fish to develop female characteristics.
steve.patterson@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4263
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-10-15/story/green_ideas_presented_at_conference_might_help_florida_water_land
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