Fit For Purpose Water: The Renewed Objective for Sustainable Treatment

As the industry turns to sustainability principles for process selection, a trend has begun to emerge whereby municipalities are evaluating treatment strategies that provide an appropriate minimum level of treatment for a specific beneficial reuse of reclaimed water,. This level of treatment is referred to as “fit for purpose water”. At facilities that produce reclaimed water, the beneficial use for which the reclaimed water is used dictates a higher or lower level of treatment than required for discharge to a stream. Utilities are now evaluating the benefits of providing separate treatment trains that are designed and operated to provide the minimum level of treatment for multiple reclaimed water applications. This evaluation considers the triple bottom line impacts of opposing pressures for higher or lower degrees of treatment. This paper discusses the sustainability principles and accounting methods that are now being used for process selection at water reclamation facilities.