The Yuck Factor

Robert Glennon, author of Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It. (Credit: Daniel Snyder)

At WEFTEC a few weeks ago, I was invited to attend a Black & Veatch-hosted roundtable discussion with more than a dozen water and wastewater industry leaders, mostly from the United States municipal sector.

Professor Robert Glennon, a water law professor at the University of Arizona, opened the roundtable with a presentation about how potable water is becoming increasingly scarce while water demands continue to rise as resources peak. He offered several possible solutions for preventing a water catastrophe in the future, including desalination, reallocation and price signals, also briefly mentioning geoengineering feats such as cloud seeding.

Reuse, however, was perhaps Glennon’s most sustainable suggestion, and it became the topic of conversation as the floor opened up to the panelists. How do we overcome the barriers to implementing reuse as part of an integrated water portfolio?, asked B&V’s Dan McCarthy.

Population changes, conflicts over water transfer rights and the lack of integrated water/wastewater agencies were among some of the impediments mentioned. To ensure a secure water future, participants agreed, it’ll be necessary to break away from a silo-mindset and explore regional solutions for water reuse.

It’s not as easy as it seems. The concept of “previously-used” water has the distinct ability to turn stomachs, and water providers (both private and public) worry that the “yuck” factor will impede public support. So how should they break the ice? And what’s necessary for public relations risk management?

“People have to believe there’s a problem,” said Robert Ghirelli of Orange County’s Sanitation District (OSCD). Water supply has become an issue during California’s drought, and most people seem acutely aware—this worked to the OSCD’s advantage when they considered introducing reuse (or the “groundwater replenishment system“) as a solution.

“You can’t tout a solution before you’ve convinced folks that there’s a problem,” said Ghirelli. “With the drought in the paper every day, it made our job easier.”

To build awareness, OSCD began giving public information sessions to educate early in the process and promote long-term acceptance. “You can’t start too early and you can’t do it too frequently,” said Ghirelli. “I think we gave over a thousand presentations; we would talk to anybody who would listen to us. You have to spread the word to get the buy-in early on.”

Ghirelli also advised to not beat around the bush. “We decided not to sugarcoat the issue. We told it like it is—we were talking about reusing sewage water.” The OSCD’s perception was that without public support, there would be no investment from the decision-makers. “Public support and acceptance is vital,” agreed McCarthy.

As we know from studying the hydrological cycle back in elementary school, reuse isn’t a new concept in nature. If we are to incorporate reuse as a viable option for meeting future water needs, we need to accept that water can be (and already is) recycled. Panel participants agreed: it’s only a matter of time before reuse is a critical part of an integrated water portfolio—notwithstanding how yucky it may seem.