Wastewater System
Authors
- Jennifer Stokes-Draut – UC Berkeley
Purpose
As aging water infrastructure nears the end of its useful life, now is an ideal time for managers and planners to focus on system resiliency, sustainability, and adaptability to potential long-term supply and demand changes from climate change, population growth, urbanization, and other factors in their decisions. It is critical to proactively and rigorously evaluate potential negative consequences as well as co-benefits associated with innovative water strategies before investments are made as they may affect society for years to come. This data will be used to determine the baseline conditions for wastewater management in 2015 using life-cycle assessment (LCA). The life-cycle impact of changing water supply alternatives on the energy and environmental impacts associated with wastewater systems will be compared.
Description
Information is being collected to characterize wastewater system operations in three UWIN cities (Denver, Miami, and Tucson) for wastewater collection, treatment, and discharge, including infrastructure inventory (not detailed), process descriptions, energy requirements, and chemical consumption for treatment. When applicable, water reuse data is also collected. Projected changes to operations will be included when provided by the utility. Data was collected from the utilities directly for their 2015 operations.
Attributes
Estimates of miles of pipes, number of pumps and tanks for each city; Treatment process description; Energy intensity of wastewater collection, treatment, and, if applicable, discharge (kWh/m3 treated); Chemical intensity of wastewater treatment (mass of volume per m3 treated for each chemical used); Current energy recovery (BTU or kWh/m3 treated); etc.
