Recycled water quality standards
Project details
| Objective: | To add to Australia's knowledge with regard to assessing and communicating risks associated with using recycled water. |
| Funding: | Up to $100,000 plus applicable GST from the Australian Government towards costs associated with supporting the work program. The total value of the project is $200,000. ($100,000 will be funded by the Queensland Government). |
| Jurisdiction: | National |
| Commenced: | May 2007 |
| Completion: | Completed June 2008, with the publication of a final report. |
About the project
This project provides robust scientific water quality standards for chemicals in regard to water quality:
- recycled water for drinking
- irrigation of human food
- crops aquaculture
- irrigation of pasture and stock watering
- industrial purposes, including cooling towers
- dust suppression at construction sites and fire fighting
- dual reticulation for garden watering, and
- toilet flushing and washing machines.
The project adds to Australia's knowledge about assessing and communicating risks associated with using recycled water by addressing some of the following questions:
- What are the chemicals of concern?
- What are the acceptably safe levels of human exposure to these chemicals during approved uses of recycled water?
- What are the best methods to reduce or remove these contaminants from source waters?
- What is the efficacy of specific recycled water treatment technologies in reducing each of the contaminants?
- What are the most practical means for monitoring these contaminants in finished water?
The project made recommendations on the treatment technologies to reliably prevent and reduce contaminants in recycled water to levels that are acceptable for human consumption. This will involve the development of management tools to ensure human health is protected and to provide assurance to the Australian community and water regulators that we can adequately address any risks when using recycled water.
Project benefits
By providing a consistent, authoritative technical review of chemical hazards in recycled water to State and Territory governments, the project identified gaps in technical knowledge, testing and treatment of recycled water for consumptive use and for release into the environment.
As a result of this project, the Commission and other stakeholders funded the development of two other projects to give utilities confidence that chemicals of concern can be detected and removed from the drinking water supply and that water treated for release to the environment will not have detrimental impacts on water dependent ecosystems.
The two related projects are: