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News Reusing sewage effluent would ease drought say surfers
The drought crisis in the Southern Water region could be eased by making more efforts to reuse sewage and wastewater, rather than discharging it to sea, say clean water campaigners Surfers Against Sewage (SAS).
by Richard Harding
23/03/2006:// SAS have called on the Secretary of State for the Environment not to allow a proposed new sewage treatment works for Brighton and Hove to go through unless it includes full treatment so that sewage and wastewater could potentially be reused rather than wasted at sea.
If more sewage treatment works were to include tertiary level treatments, such as UV disinfection, then water from sewage can be reclaimed after removing contaminants such as suspended solids, nutrients and pathogens. This water would be safe enough to use for a variety of applications such as agriculture irrigation (crops, commercial nurseries), landscape irrigation (golf courses, parks), water for industrial use (cooling or process water), groundwater recharge, environmental uses such as stream augmentation and non-potable urban reuse (fire protection, air conditioning, toilet flushing). By directing reclaimed water to these sources, raw water (i.e. the stuff in the reservoir) is saved and can be stretched that much further.
By treating sewage and wastewater in this way, bans to stop the watering of parks, sports grounds and public buildings that Southern Water are moving towards would be unnecessary.
The current Southern Water proposal for Brighton and Hove’s new sewage treatment plant would see sewage and wastewater receive secondary level treatment before being discharged to sea via a newly built long sea outfall. Over 250,000 people’s sewage and wastewater would be wasted at sea everyday in what can only be described as an unsustainable project in the current climate of water shortages.
Richard Hardy, SAS Campaigns Director says: “With water companies asking for the public’s help to conserve water it is particularly disappointing to see that many companies are unable to practice what they preach by not making more use of reused sewage effluent”.
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