492
18.2.2.2 Water Systems
As noted above, municipal and regional governments historically have been very
active in the provision of water and wastewater services. Water agencies are required
by state and federal governments to maintain certain minimum levels of drinking
water quality for human health, monitoring water contaminants, and reporting
results to consumers and citizens publicly. Wastewater effluent similarly must meet
minimum contamination standards, and in some cases, its volume is also publicly
regulated. Public water agencies have, in some cases, been successfully pressured to
ensure that water and wastewater services are available even to those households
that lack sufficient income to pay for the services; this is sometimes framed as a
discussion of water as a human right (the policy criterion).
Like the private sector, public water-providing agencies must consider the allocation of scarce and costly water supplies among residential uses (basic human
needs), agricultural uses (local food production), industrial uses (providing employment and tax revenue), and aesthetic uses (lawns and golf courses), which may be
particularly challenging in arid climates with limited water resources. Legislative
and legal drivers may be instituted at the state and regional levels addressing rate
structures to recapture costs in the public interest that may not be capturable via
market forces. The cost of providing water and wastewater services is particularly
driven by the significant amounts of energy required for its distribution (the footprint criterion), and many efforts are underway to reduce these demands. Some
coastal cities are investigating the possibility of the desalination of seawater, which
may require less energy than pumping groundwater or transporting distant surface
water (such as in San Diego County, California). It takes energy to move water from
the source to the city, and it takes energy to treat the water supply, distribution system, and wastewater prior to final discharge to surface waters (the infrastructure
criterion). Another driver in older cities is the age of the water infrastructure, which
may contribute to leaks and water losses that increase costs both related to energy
use and system maintenance.
Public wastewater effluent water quality standards are based in the USA on designated public uses of rivers, lakes, and groundwater for drinking water and human
contact and fishing. In older US cities, agencies have been particularly challenged
to reduce combined sewer overflows (CSOs)—a common engineering practice of
the twentieth century in which sewage and storm wastewater flows were combined—when large precipitation events overload the wastewater processing facility,
raw sewage is released into the receiving body of water, as discussed in Chap. 10,
Infrastructure. Public innovation to reduce the storage and energy costs of stormwater management, contributing to CSO reduction, includes the use of large-scale
green stormwater infrastructure (such as porous pavement and bioswales), and
when these and other practices are designed as discussed in Sect. 18.3.3, they can
also recapture water supply for use in food production. Some agencies are also
recovering the nutrients that remain after the processing of wastewater, producing
biogas for energy production by composting, or selling the digested, pasteurized
C. Harris et al.
18.2.2.2 Water Systems
As noted above, municipal and regional governments historically have been very
active in the provision of water and wastewater services. Water agencies are required
by state and federal governments to maintain certain minimum levels of drinking
water quality for human health, monitoring water contaminants, and reporting
results to consumers and citizens publicly. Wastewater effluent similarly must meet
minimum contamination standards, and in some cases, its volume is also publicly
regulated. Public water agencies have, in some cases, been successfully pressured to
ensure that water and wastewater services are available even to those households
that lack sufficient income to pay for the services; this is sometimes framed as a
discussion of water as a human right (the policy criterion).
Like the private sector, public water-providing agencies must consider the allocation of scarce and costly water supplies among residential uses (basic human
needs), agricultural uses (local food production), industrial uses (providing employment and tax revenue), and aesthetic uses (lawns and golf courses), which may be
particularly challenging in arid climates with limited water resources. Legislative
and legal drivers may be instituted at the state and regional levels addressing rate
structures to recapture costs in the public interest that may not be capturable via
market forces. The cost of providing water and wastewater services is particularly
driven by the significant amounts of energy required for its distribution (the footprint criterion), and many efforts are underway to reduce these demands. Some
coastal cities are investigating the possibility of the desalination of seawater, which
may require less energy than pumping groundwater or transporting distant surface
water (such as in San Diego County, California). It takes energy to move water from
the source to the city, and it takes energy to treat the water supply, distribution system, and wastewater prior to final discharge to surface waters (the infrastructure
criterion). Another driver in older cities is the age of the water infrastructure, which
may contribute to leaks and water losses that increase costs both related to energy
use and system maintenance.
Public wastewater effluent water quality standards are based in the USA on designated public uses of rivers, lakes, and groundwater for drinking water and human
contact and fishing. In older US cities, agencies have been particularly challenged
to reduce combined sewer overflows (CSOs)—a common engineering practice of
the twentieth century in which sewage and storm wastewater flows were combined—when large precipitation events overload the wastewater processing facility,
raw sewage is released into the receiving body of water, as discussed in Chap. 10,
Infrastructure. Public innovation to reduce the storage and energy costs of stormwater management, contributing to CSO reduction, includes the use of large-scale
green stormwater infrastructure (such as porous pavement and bioswales), and
when these and other practices are designed as discussed in Sect. 18.3.3, they can
also recapture water supply for use in food production. Some agencies are also
recovering the nutrients that remain after the processing of wastewater, producing
biogas for energy production by composting, or selling the digested, pasteurized
C. Harris et al.