Water reuse – status and contribution to EU initiative

9 February 2016 – Side meeting

Castell – Platja d’Aro, a reference case for water

reclamation and reuse

www.eip-water.eu/RTWQM
 Presentation outline
 RTWQM Action Group Objectives
 Consorci Costa Brava (CCB) and water reuse in CCB
 R3water project and water reuse in R3water
 Castell – Platja d’Aro Case Study
 R3water innovative technologies in Castell – Platja d’Aro
 Regulatory aspects on Monitoring strategies
 Environmental, planning and socio-economic
aspects from the experience
 Urban Water Cycle in the context of the Circular Economy

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 RTWQM Action Group Objectives
 Objective: to foster solutions to water challenges based on
online water quality monitoring technologies and affordable
monitoring strategies
 Water sectors: water bodies, drinking water and waste water,
including water reclamation and reuse
 Applications:
 Resource efficiency, in terms of chemical dosing and energy, in water
treatment processes for both water supply and waste water;
 Early warning systems to detect pollution of surface water, ground
water catchments and drinking water resources;
 Control networks to monitor industrial and urban waste water
discharges and water reuse schemes.

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Consorci Costa Brava
 Water utility (1971) providing
water services to 27 municipalities
in the coastal strip of Girona’s
province
 Resident population: 250,000
inhabitants; estimated peak
population in summer > 1 million
inhabitants
 Wholesale drinking water supply to
23 municipalities (17.7 million
m3/y in 2015)
 Biological wastewater treatment in
18 WWTP serving 31 municipalities
(28.2 million m3/y in 2015)

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
Water Reuse in CCB

Reclaimed water
production and supply
for non-potable uses
(3.3 million m3/y in
2015; max 6.4 million
m3/y in 2010)

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 R3water Project
www.r3water.eu/

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for
research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No 619093.
Water reuse – status and
contribution to the EU initiative
 R3water Project

What is R3water ?
Demonstration of innovative solutions for Reuse of water, Recovery of
valuables and Resource efficiency in urban wastewater treatment:
• To support the transition from an urban wastewater treatment plant
to a production unit of different valuables by demonstrating new
solutions to address main challenges;
• To facilitate the market uptake of these innovative solutions.

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Water Reuse in R3water

Innovative technologies:
• DOSCONTROL (TEQMA): Advanced control for combined (UV+Cl) water
disinfection
• AQUABIO (ADASA): Online monitoring of E.coli and total coliforms in water
• AQUATRACK (AQUA-Q): Early warning system for pathogens in water
coupled with sampler
Demonstration sites:
• Hammarby Sjostadsverk: IVL’s pilot plant (Stockholm – Sweden)
• Castell – Platja d’Aro WWTP (Costa Brava – Spain)
R3Water workshop “From Innovation to Market: The Second Valley
of Death” (11th February 2016 in Leeuwarden, NL)
http://r3water.eu/r3water-workshop-from-innovation-to-market-the-second-valley-of-
death-11th-february-2016-in-leeuwarden-nl/

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Castell – Platja d’Aro Case Study
WWTP
• Municipalities of Castell-Platja d’Aro, Platja d’Aro, Sant Feliu de Guixols and
Santa Cristina d’Aro
• Average capacity of 35.000 m3/day, and 175.000 p.e., high seasonality
• Primary treatment, secondary treatment with conventional activated sludge
and a tertiary treatment for golf course and agricultural irrigation

Water Reclamation
• Water Reclamation Plant (WRP) is
designed for a 15.000 m3/day flow
• Gravity sand filtration + combined
disinfection (UV + Sodium hypochlorite)

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
Castell – Platja d’Aro Case Study

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Castell – Platja d’Aro Case Study

Main reclaimed water users: 2 golf courses, one pitch & putt facility and
two agricultural irrigation communities (corn and orchard products,
respectively)

On-demand production, with a buffer storage of 325 m3

• Maximum peak production: 400m3/h, during the summer 2015

• The increase in the number of users has increased the demand almost at the
limit of the current production capacity at hourly peak demand period.

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Technologies: Water reclamation
Continuous control of combined disinfection process in
water reclamation
• The appropriated combination of chemical + physical
disinfection, generates positive synergies delivering
enhanced microbiology load reduction and substantial
reduction of operational costs and an increase in the
safety of the reclaimed water produced
• The increased disinfection spectrum process ensures a
residual concentration of biocide through the distribution
network, limiting possible regrowth
Benefits
• Efficient safe water production, providing the adjusted
dose of each disinfectant agent allowing fit-for-purpose
production of reclaimed water, according to the intended
water quality for the reuse (irrigation, environmental and
industrial uses)
• Valuable real time information of the disinfection process
• Reduction in O&M associated costs
Water reuse – status and
contribution to the EU initiative
 Technologies: Online monitoring
Continuous measurement equipment for: Escherichia coli and total
coliforms simultaneously.
• Used technique: Defined Substrate Technology® (DST®) and detection system
by measuring fluorescence and absorbance. Applicability
• E. coli is a bacteria widely used as an indicator of faecal contamination, and
also key indicators for determining the potential uses of reclaimed water from
a WWTP tertiary treatment.

Benefits
• Early warning in case of the water reclamation plant
malfunctioning.
• Efficient production of reclaimed water, avoiding overdosing
of disinfection chemicals and excess of UV power
consumption.
• Allows the production of fit-for-purpose reclaimed water.

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Regulatory aspects: Monitoring strategies
During 2014, a market study was conducted in the scope of RTWQM, based
on the survey and the experience from more than 70 water experts.

Regarding one question about the

discrete sampling, 70% of the
answers point out that the current
water sampling strategies
stipulated in the water directives
are not properly representing the
real status of the water bodies
and treatment processes.

 current monitoring regulations defined in the water directives as a

barrier for the adoption of innovative monitoring technologies ???

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Regulatory aspects: Monitoring in EU water directives
The monitoring requirements defined in the water directives are following a set of common
steps:
• Specify the minimum sampling frequency
• Specify the water quality parameters to be monitored
• Specify the physical/chemical/biological analysis method

Monitoring RTWQM Comments

requirement applicability
Minimum sampling RTWQM technologies can provide sampling frequencies from
frequency minutes to hours, in any case higher than discrete manual
sampling.
Quality parameters Not all the required quality parameters can be monitored online.

Analysis method Definitely, the online monitoring methods will often be different
from those specified for laboratory.
Thus, the major barriers to online monitoring are:
• The specification of compulsory laboratory analysis methods.
• Available online monitoring technologies are not taken in consideration when defining the
quality parameters.

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
Regulatory aspects: Spanish regulation on Water Reuse
National Water Reuse Directive ES: RD 1620/2007
• Establish different thresholds for the physicochemical and biological
parameters, according to the intended reuse, and even according to the
different irrigated crop types
But it presents some drawbacks that might act as barrier for the development of
new water reuse schemes
• First, the legal mechanism (Real Decreto) seems ‘written on stone’
• The nematode eggs parameter is not relevant for reclaimed water
• The nitrate threshold level for aquifer recharge is more stringent than for
drinking water supply itself
• High frequency of analysis (i.e., E. coli can be required up to 3 times/week)
required by the regulation causes an increase in the costs of lab analysis but
does not effectively protect the quality of reclaimed water

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Regulatory aspects: The WSP approach
The early warning function will never be fulfilled by specifying discrete
sampling strategies and laboratory analysis methods, and, in the limit,
increasing the sampling frequency will not be sustainable in terms of efforts
and costs.
The Water Safety Plan (WSP)* is a risk-based approach that identifies which
parameters are critical, and accordingly, set up the monitoring strategies to
be adopted, including online monitoring.
A potential approach to be explored, providing an effective combination of:
• discrete sampling, required for regulatory compliance, and providing
accurate measures for more water quality parameters
• and online monitoring, suitable for process control and optimization, and
providing event detection and early warning functionality
(*) Water safety plan manual: step-by-step risk management for drinking-water suppliers. WHO. Geneva, 2009

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Environmental, planning and socio-
economic aspects from the experience

Key messages from 27 years of experience in

water reclamation and reuse in Castell Platja ‘dAro

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Environmental aspects
• Decrease of the depletion of strategic groundwater resources
• Efficiency of fertigation, introducing nutrient recovery and reducing the environmental
impacts of diffuse agriculture pollution
• Allows changing dry crops to irrigated crops. In the case of maize, doubles the
atmospheric CO2 uptake

(*) J. Muñoz and L. Sala: Environmental criteria for alternative nutrient removal in treated wastewater. 6th Conference on Wastewater
Reclamation and Reuse for Sustainability, October 9-12, 2007, Antwerp, Belgium http://ccbgi.org/docs/antwerp_2007/poster2007.pdf

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Economic and planning aspects
• The WWTP Ecosystem: The environmental and economic sustainability of
the water reuse scheme is limited by the presence of potential users in the
WWTP area
• The use of reclaimed water for irrigation has lower OPEX than extracting
groundwaters + purchasing fertilizers
• Better crop response and more valuable crops production, saving
fertilization costs
• Funding sources vs. whole urban water cycle approach: the reclaimed
water as an alternative local water source to be managed by water
supply utilities rather than an isolated service provided by the
wastewater facilities

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Users and social acceptance aspects

• Opportunity for the generation of new economical activities and job

creation in the WWTP Ecosystem
• Continuity of economical activities and municipal services (gardens
irrigation, cleaning of facilities) even during severe drought episodes (3
events between 1998 – 2008)
• End-users acceptance: the number of users has been increasing during
the years and even farmers located relatively far away are interested in
being connected to the water reuse network
• “Reuse of treated waste water”: please avoid to use ‘wastewater’
together with the term ‘reuse’, this will generate reluctance in the users
and public and it will hamper the wide adoption of water reuse in EU 
REUSE OF RECLAIMED WATER

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Urban Water Cycle in the context of the Circular Economy

Depletion of strategic water

Raw
Drinking resources
water
Water Plant

Online Monitoring for efficiency

Water
Reclamation
Drinking Online Monitoring for early
Plant
water warning

Reclaimed
Waste water
City
water

Aquifer
recharge
Public acceptance
Waste Water Municipal
Reclaimed water demand Treatment Plant Treated water uses
from users
Overall operational costs
Economical activities and job Fertigation
creation uses Crop production
Fertilization
Water body
CO2 net emissions
Protection of water bodies
Efficient nutrient recovery

Diffuse agriculture pollution

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative
 Acknowledments
• Lluis Sala - http://www.ccbgi.org/
• Uwe Fortkamp - http://www.ivl.se/
• Ernest Mejias - http://www.teqma.com/
• Montserrat Batlle - http://adasaproducts.com/
• Corina Carpentier - http://benten-water.com/
• EIP Water Secretariat

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Sergio de Campos
RTWQM Coordinator
sdecampos@adasasistemas.com

Water reuse – status and

contribution to the EU initiative