Potable Reuse Pilots & Demonstrations: A Review of Flow, Treatment, & Costs

As a part of its initial efforts to develop an Advanced Water Treatment Demonstration Program, Hillsborough County Public Utilities conducted a broad review of 33 potable reuse pilots and demonstrations in the United States, to glean lessons learned from the approaches utilized by other utilities. The review considered more than 30 years of major potable reuse pilots and demonstrations (1985-2018). Facilities ranged in capacity from 1 GPM to 8 MGD. The investigation found that most self-styled potable reuse “demonstration” plant capacities had greater than or equal to about 0.1 MGD (˜70 GPM), smaller plants tended to be called “pilot” plants. Also, potable reuse program costs were correlated to plant capacity, providing a useful model for other utilities to obtain a quick order of magnitude estimate of initial program costs based on program capacity. The model is Cost (M)=16.98*Cap0.678 (R2=0.81). Where capacity is in MGD and cost is in 2018 dollars.