By G. Tracy Mehan, III
In the classic 1942 film “Casablanca,” Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart, is asked by the world-weary Vichy French Captain Renault, played by Claude Rains, “What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?”
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A few years ago, the State of California, in part on my instance, created a panel of experts to look at the development and use of recycled water and potential public health impacts. Unfortunately, the State’s initial panel did not have expertise in the generation and through-put of antibiotic resistant microbes, as results from the conversion of wastewater into recycled. Nonetheless, because it lacked the necessary understandings on the development and augmentation of resistant organisms and their genes, this initial panel deemed the process to be safe and stated so in their report. I flagged this deficiency and that panel later, in a subsequent report, admitted that it did not have the requisite background to make such statements.
Wishing to still promote the expansion of recycled water, the State convened a subsequent panel that did look at the unavoidable generation, inclusion and dispersal of antibiotic resistant microbes and their recalcitrant genes in Title 22 wastewater from which most recycled water is generated.
This later panel came out with a report (Expert Panel Final Report, August 2016) produced the following: (Evaluation of the Feasibility of Developing Uniform Water Recycling Criteria for Direct Potable Reuse, CSWRCB).
In its recommendations, that expert panel noted the need for those contemplating the direct potable use, to have a well organized association with a local public health agency to track potential blow-outs and rise in epidemiology indicators that might be associated with the direct potable reuse (DPR) of recycled water. In checking with the state Department of Public Health, that agency thinks that there may be three counties in the state that would have the capacity to undertake this function. In checking within my local area (Santa Barbara County) of the agencies that one might presume to be associated with this public health function, none feel this is within their jurisdiction; also these agencies are ill equipped or staffed for such a function and there is no funding. Notwithstanding this apparent lack of interest and capacity, water agencies seem to be pushing ahead on developing programs for reuse.
There is a serious policy disconnect in this that warrants review.
Dr Edo McGowan
PFAS should be a wake up call for the reuse industry, especially in light of it ‘ticking time bomb’ threat to groundwater. Environmental buffers for indirect potable use, or the often mislabeled agricultural reuse, won’t provide long term safety. The problem with much recycled water promotion is that the actual reuse is not the promoted reuse — irrigation is often indirect potable reuse as many private wells rely on surface recharge.
This means a higher level of treatment is often needed than may be first apparent, but industry typically peddles cheaper solutions. We need to accept that we haven’t found an economical solution for many potential reuse projects, and increase efforts to do so, rather than push solutions that will cause harm long term