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Bill Frogameni |
Water reuse: a solution to drought in the Florida wetlands
West Palm Beach is sprinkling up to 10 million gallons of reclaimed water onto the marshy expanse each day.
By Bill Frogameni | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitorfrom the November 7, 2007 edition
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West Palm Beach, Fla. - South Florida is one of the wettest regions in the country, but this year it's caught in a drought. A leading indicator of the dryness – Lake Okeechobee – dropped to a record low of 8.8 feet in July. Now just below 10-1/2 feet, it is still five feet shallower than average.
The region has tried to compensate. Its water-management district instituted the toughest usage restrictions in history last spring, allowing lawn irrigation or car washing only during certain narrowly defined times. "Water cops" were deployed to ticket scofflaws who misuse the water.
But it's not enough, experts say. At stake is not only the drinking supply for more than 5 million people, but also the health of the Everglades and agricultural production.
That's why South Florida is turning to another solution: water reuse.
Already, since the mid-1990s, the region has more than doubled water reuse – to some 230 million gallons per day in 2005, according to the South Florida Water Management District. That's 28 percent of the water cycled back through public-treatment systems – but only a small share of the total 3.4 billion gallons a day that gets used, most of it devoted to agriculture or otherwise lost to lawn irrigation or other uses.
One of the most innovative ways to reclaim wastewater is to treat it to the point where it's nearly potable and then to let land – a natural filter – finish the job.
Just 10 minutes inland from the densely developed Atlantic coast, the city of West Palm Beach runs a reclamation project that combines advanced wastewater treatment with habitat restoration. Here, on the edge of Grassy Waters Preserve – 20 square miles of wetlands, which provide most of the drinking water for 130,000 people in the city and surrounding municipalities – the city began augmenting its water supply last November. The city can sprinkle up to 10 million gallons per day of highly treated reclaimed water onto the marshy expanse.
Bordered by residential development, the preserve is a tiny portion of the historic northern Everglades and a habitat for bald eagles, alligators, bobcats and numerous other species. The additional water will enhance biodiversity, according to Patrick Painter, a biologist who manages Grassy Waters.
"Anytime you add water ... it's a dynamic system," says Mr. Painter.
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