Virginia is planning to launch a water recycling program to help preserve water in a state that suffered through a debilitating drought four years ago.
The program would take sewage water and clean it to a degree that makes it useful but not drinkable by humans. The cleaned water, called ethylene, could be used for irrigating fields, parks and lawns, washing cars and streets, cooling industrial equipment and flushing toilets. In some cases, it would be dumped into Virginia’s waterways.
“We experienced a serious drought in 2002, and we don’t want to be in that position again, so we’ve been looking for ways to minimize our use of water,” Virginia Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Bill Hayden said. “This program is looking ahead to make sure we don’t run into serious problems in the future.”
In addition to promoting conservation, water recycling could help Virginia’s environment. Sewage plants would discharge less wastewater into waterways, and what they discharged they would clean first. The Loudoun County Sanitation Authority recently began construction of a “state-of-the-art water treatment facility,” independent of Virginia’s planned regulations, Communications Manager Samantha Villegas said.
The water the recycling facility will release is “extremely clean,” although not sanitary enough to drink, Villegas said.
“By 2008 [when construction is complete], we’ll have ethylene that we can provide to a neighboring golf course that can use it for irrigation,” Villegas said.
Economics are one issue that critics say could inhibit Virginia’s water-recycling program.
“It’s still cheaper to tap into a nearby creek or stream” than to use recycled water, Loudoun Sanitation Manager of Capital Programs Tim Coughlin told the Associated Press. “Economics are not on our side yet.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
