Recycling Treated Municipal Wastewater for Industrial Water Use

Section 1: Introduction
Recycling Treated Municipal Wastewater for Industrial Water Use
The project activities were directed at four areas of inquiry, as listed in Table 1.1. The demand and
supply analysis asks the questions: Is there a match in the quantity of wastewater generated to the water
supply demand of industries in the state? What is the proximity of existing WWTPs to industries? The
water quality and treatment requirements task evaluates the quality of treated wastewater and quality
requirements for various industrial uses. Potential treatment processes are identified for those applications
where the supply quality does not meet the industry’s needs. The evaluation of costs addresses the
Table 1.1. Project Areas
economic feasibility of wastewater
recycling. These three project tasks address
the first project objective – to determine the
feasibility of wastewater recycling for
industrial water use.
Demand & Supply Analysis
Compare industrial water demands with the available treated
municipal wastewater supply.
Water Quality & Treatment Requirements
Compare industry water quality requirements to treated The implementation issues inquiry asks:
municipal wastewater quality and identify treatment processes What needs to be considered to implement
for recycled wastewater use by industry.
wastewater recycling and what are the
Costs
obstacles? The various considerations
Estimate treatment and transmission costs.
include technical, regulatory, legal, and
institutional elements. The findings of the
Implementation Issues
first three project tasks and input from
Identify implementation issues.
various stakeholder meetings were used to
address the second objective to identify implementation issues.
The remainder of this section provides background information on water use and wastewater recycling
activities, with a focus on Minnesota. Sections 2-4 summarize the results of the four project areas of
inquiry and Section 5 provides the project summary and recommended next steps. Volume II contains
technical memoranda and related information that support the results shown in this report volume and
provides additional details and references.
1.2 Water Use in Minnesota
How much water do Minnesotans use and what is it used for? Permitted water use in Minnesota ranged
from 3.4 to 3.7 billion gallons per day (gpd) during 2000-2004. Water permits in Minnesota are required
for all water users that withdraw more than 1
million gallons per year (mgy) and/or
100,000 gpd of ground or surface water.
Permitted water use does not account for
most domestic private well or surface
withdrawals. The majority of the water use
information reported in this document is
based on the records maintained by the
MDNR Appropriation Permits program.
Water use data should be assumed to be based
on the permit records of the MDNR unless
referenced otherwise.
The MDNR tracks water use by nine
industrial categories, shown in Figure 1.1 and
listed in Table 1.2 on the following page.
Over 60% of the water used in Minnesota is
Figure 1.1. Water Use in Minnesota, 2004
Power
Generation
2,380 mgd
(63%)
Water Utility
556 mgd
(15%)
Industrial
Processing
442 mgd
(12%)
Special Categories 33 mgd (1%)
Temporary 5 mgd (