Guest opinion: What you need to know about reclaimed water

Don Rainey

Think of reclaimed water as a form of recycled wastewater that is produced at a central sewage treatment facility. It is a relatively inexpensive form of a highly treated and disinfected wastewater intended for non-drinking water uses, and it is becoming more available to communities across Florida.

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By law, homeowners may use reclaimed water to irrigate the lawn and landscape. Regulated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, reclaimed water is a safe alternative water supply to supplement residential irrigation. It is distributed via “purple” colored pipe, sprinkler devices and supplied through a water meter separate from the domestic potable supply.

There are five important considerations for using reclaimed water. It:

offsets drinking water supplies used for irrigation.
may contain seasonal low to high amounts of salts, nitrogen, and phosphorous.
may be an economical source of nutrients.
may negatively affect the water quality of surface and groundwater supplies if misused.
is not intended for human or animal consumption.

The level of wastewater treatment required to remove all dissolved salts or nutrients from reclaimed water is not economically feasible nor a primary goal for wastewater treatment operators. Yet, it is helpful to know the nutrient and salinity concentrations in reclaimed water, especially if homeowners are experiencing plant loss or decline or are maintaining a routine fertilizer schedule. Contact the local utilities or public works for the current analysis.

Secondly, with this information in hand, consult with a local UF/IFAS Extension Agent for a review and further investigation of salinity and nutrient values. If salinity is an issue in the landscape, adopt the “Right Plant, Right Place” Florida-Friendly Landscaping principle, select and install salt-tolerant plants to maintain a healthy and aesthetic landscape. If fertilizer is applied routinely to the lawn and landscape, account for the nutrient values in the fertilizer budget.

Homeowners are responsible for managing their reclaimed water in two ways. Either they can perform, or they can directly involve, landscape maintenance professionals to follow the UF/IFAS-recommended Irrigation Best Management Practices (BMPs) to protect natural resources and their landscape investment by:

routinely inspecting the irrigation system for line breaks, broken sprinkler heads and erosion.
auditing the irrigation system at least four times a year, to set or reset the automatic timer, test the rainfall shutoff device, evaluate application volume and uniformity.
calibrating the system by using catch-cans to check proper application patterns and volume uniformity per zone; runtimes should not exceed ¾ of an inch of water per application event.
repairing or replacing broken or worn out parts with identical or similar characteristics.
redirecting sprinklers to prevent overspray onto sidewalks, driveways and seawalls that may lead to runoff to storm drains or direct contact with surface water. To this end, if reclaimed water is used appropriately, and according to the BMPs, it is a benefit to the landscape and protects drinking water supplies. Protecting Florida’s drinking water quality and supply is essential to our economic, social, and environmental way of life.

Don Rainey is a regional specialized water resources agent with the UF/IFAS Extension Southwest District of Florida.To contact him, email drainey@ufl.edu.