https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
  • Resources & Events
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
  • Resources/Events
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers/eBooks
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
  • Magazine
acc.com

Public Works & Utilities


Image via Unsplash

Article

The case for ozone in potable reuse and emerging contaminant treatment

The case for ozone in potable reuse and emerging contaminant treatment

As communities take steps to provide reliable long-term water supplies through potable reuse and ensure that our waters are safe by mitigating threats to water quality, ozone will be one part of a suite of building blocks for creating the most effective treatment process
  • Written by Trevor Dale
  • 25th November 2020

In recent years, public awareness surrounding water quality issues has risen dramatically, driving policy and increasingly higher standards of wastewater treatment. The public’s knowledge of the importance of clean water and the factors that can degrade it is partly a result of advancements in our ability to detect micropollutants and trace contaminants at very low levels. We are now much more aware not only of what is in our water, but of the potential implications to human health and the environment.

Accordingly, municipalities that bear the responsibility of ensuring safe water face greater pressure to meet tighter limits and higher levels of effluent quality. As they evaluate technology options to address their unique challenges and meet water quality goals, municipalities can look to ozone as an advanced treatment that offers powerful oxidation and disinfection for targeting a wide spectrum of contaminants and pathogens.

Ozone continues to expand beyond a pure water treatment technology and can be integrated at many points in a water treatment process. It is a stronger disinfectant compared to the chlorine-based chemicals available today, allowing for lower dosage and shorter residence times in water. Since chlorinated contaminants or other chemicals are not added, ozone is known as a pure disinfectant. It has a finite lifetime and decays to oxygen, resulting in a product water that is more oxygenated.

Looking ahead, two issues in particular stand to accelerate the adoption of advanced treatment solutions and ozone technology at the municipal level: water scarcity (driving potable reuse), and emerging trace contaminants.

 

Full-flow treatment for tailored potable reuse

In the coming decades, water scarcity is widely expected to become a more dire concern. In the U.S., water stress will intensify as the population expands—creating greater water demand—and freshwater resources diminish from a changing climate. As U.S. populations become more vulnerable to water shortages, communities will increasingly look to alternative water sources like reusing treated water. Globally, demand is steadily outpacing supply, and is projected to do so by 40 percent by 2030.

Water reuse generally occurs on a continuum, where effluent is treated to a quality that fits the intended end use. While most reclaimed water in the U.S. is used for non-potable applications, such as irrigation or industrial cooling, potable reuse projects are expected to increase as municipalities respond to growing needs.

Already, the push is clear—more municipalities are building treatment process schemes with the flexibility to produce water to higher standards. For those that include potable water, two different types of reuse targets are possible. These include indirect potable reuse (IPR), where purified water is discharged into an environmental buffer such as a lake or a groundwater aquifer before being reintroduced into a water supply system, and direct potable reuse (DPR), where purified water is sent directly into a water supply system.

For both types, ozone is integrated in combination with other processes, such as UV and membrane filtration, as a tertiary treatment solution or even a fourth stage solution at the end of a process treatment line. Providing powerful disinfection and chemical-free oxidation that can be up to 50 percent stronger than gaseous chlorine, ozone offers robust efficacy at reducing pathogen and trace contaminant concentrations. With ozone, treatment professionals have a full flow treatment option that provides 100 percent water purification flow without a water segmentation step or a reject stream. Beyond pathogen reduction, the semi-selective oxidizing power of ozone reduces contaminants in the treated water.

 

A best available technology for trace contaminants

Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) are increasingly being detected in our waters at low but steadily increasing concentrations. These chemicals and byproducts—which include pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and microplastics—carry a certain level of concern in the water quality industry due to their human health and environmental risks. The full extent of these risks are still being understood, but their negative impact is well documented.

CECs and other micropollutants are present in wastewaters at parts per billion or even parts per trillion levels, and are not effectively removed when using traditional treatment technologies. As a regulatory framework is considered in areas around the world for managing different CECs, ozone offers a best available technology for oxidizing and removing low-level concentrations of emerging contaminants, including endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and trace organic compounds. Ozone acts as a complementary solution to filtration and carbon absorption, which come together in a multi-treatment process for effectively purifying water and reducing trace contaminants.

 

A technology building block for the future

As communities take steps to provide reliable long-term water supplies through potable reuse and ensure that our waters are safe by mitigating threats to water quality, ozone will be one part of a suite of building blocks for creating the most effective treatment process. In the same way that awareness has brought water quality standards to where they are now, awareness will guide us into the future as we continue to address these and other challenges.

 

Trevor Dale is Senior Product Manager for SUEZ Water Technologies & Solutions. Reach him at [email protected].

 

 

Tags: homepage-featured-4 News Public Works & Utilities News Public Works & Utilities Article

Most Recent


  • MSPs
    The MSP downstream cyberthreat paradox: Understanding the city and county connection
    Recently the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) along with the FBI, NSA, and international cyber authorities issued a cybersecurity advisory aimed at protecting managed service providers (MSPs) and their customers. This high-level advisory has been gestating for some time ever since the SolarWinds and Kaseya supply chain cyber-attacks. A software supply chain attack occurs […]
  • Philanthropic group to launch assistance portal for local admins navigating federal bureaucracy
    A joint venture announced Tuesday by a group of philanthropic organizations—in collaboration with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities (NLC) and Results for America—seeks to help small and mid-sized communities secure their piece of the $550 billion in funding available for local governments navigating federal bureaucracy. The digital portal will launch […]
  • Report: Nearly 95 percent of America's mayors face harassment, threats and violence
    In today’s divided socioeconomic landscape—one that’s rife with political angst—harassment of mayors has become commonplace, especially against minority leaders. Women mayors and mayors of color face more frequent and acute incidents of harassment and violence, according to new research from the advocacy organizations Equity Agenda and the Mayors Innovation Project. Nearly half of all women mayors […]
  • Report: Almost half of public sector retirees don't touch their retirement plans for a decade
    Once retired, nearly half of public sector employees aren’t taking any action with their defined contribution retirement plan funds for at least a decade, according to research from Mission Square Research Institute, which included the analysis of more than 100,000 public service data records. In their first ten years of retirement, researchers found that 48 […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your American City and County account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • NLC releases State of Cities 2021 report
  • How local governments can get ahead of the infrastructure wave: Strategies to mitigate risk
  • Prioritizing rapid restore leads to stronger ransomware attack recovery
  • Ultrafast electric vehicle charging will propel local governments into the future

White papers


The PIO’s Ultimate Guide to Social Media

16th May 2022

Gain Greater Visibility Into Your Public Works Fleet

16th May 2022

Arizona Arts Center Meets Rapid Deadline with Hundreds of Thousands in Savings

26th April 2022
view all

Events


PODCAST


Young Leaders Episode 4 – Cyril Jefferson – City Councilman, High Point, North Carolina

13th October 2020

Young Leaders Episode 3 – Shannon Hardin – City Council President, Columbus, Ohio

27th July 2020

Young Leaders Episode 2 – Christian Williams – Development Services Planner, Goodyear, Ariz.

1st July 2020
view all

Twitter


AmerCityCounty

The MSP downstream cyberthreat paradox: Understanding the city and county connection dlvr.it/SQYVjs

17th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Philanthropic group to launch assistance portal for local admins navigating federal bureaucracy dlvr.it/SQY16G

17th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Report: Nearly 95 percent of America’s mayors face harassment, threats and violence dlvr.it/SQTn2z

16th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

The PIO’s Ultimate Guide to Social Media dlvr.it/SQTdCK

16th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Gain Greater Visibility Into Your Public Works Fleet dlvr.it/SQSqXG

16th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Report: Almost half of public sector retirees don’t touch their retirement plans for a decade dlvr.it/SQKMjp

13th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Four steps to ensure your budget prioritizes equity dlvr.it/SQJgZz

13th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Victims of Surfside condo collapse settle for nearly $1B in class action lawsuit dlvr.it/SQJffb

13th May 2022

Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X