EVALUATION OF LIFE CYCLE COSTS, BENEFITS, AND PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF GREYWATER REUSE SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLEMENTING CONVENTIONAL WATER DELIVERY

The water utility industry is under enormous pressure to meet the challenges of increasing demands due to population growth, lifestyle changes, and depleting freshwater resources. The current and predicted future deficit scenarios challenge water supply managers to come up with a sustainable and reliable alternative source while making the supply infrastructure smarter and resilient. One such alternative source is the greywater that is available at the point of consumption itself. With certain limitations, there have been studies performed to evaluate the life cycle costs and expected monetary benefits of decentralized greywater reuse systems, but the public and health bureaus are apprehensive about the risk of diseases that may arise due to the placement of greywater treatment technologies very near to spaces of human interaction. In an attempt to address these knowledge gaps, the proposed study will evaluate the economic, reliability and public perception related implications of greywater reuse systems in order to evaluate the best combination of physical infrastructure and policy alternatives that will enable greater adoption of these systems and in turn enhance water supply sustainability. The specific goals of this study are to: (a) comparatively evaluate the life cycle costs and expected monetary benefits of decentralized greywater reuse systems considering a utility-scale implementation; (b) evaluate the supply reliability improvement when decentralized greywater reuse systems are installed to complement existing water supply systems; (c) evaluate the public perceptions towards greywater reuse systems and other factors that may increase its adoption. Overall, the proposed study will contribute to the body of knowledge in assessing the potential merits and limitations of decentralized greywater reuse and determining interventions that will help address the limitations to enable greater adoption of these systems

Empirical Analysis of Large Diameter Water Main Break Consequences

The recent ASCE report card gave a near failing “D” grade to drinking waterinfrastructure in the U.S. and reported that about 240,000 water main breaks occurannually. The economic, environmental and societal consequences of some of these watermain breaks have been hard to comprehend in the context of risk assessment andrehabilitation planning. In an attempt to understand the various impacts of such failuresand subsequently estimate the overall impact cost, this study synthesized the reportedconsequences of 20 large diameter water main breaks in the U.S., most of which haveoccurred in the recent past, and subsequently estimated the overall cost of the impacts indollar amount. Furthermore, this study identified the factors that aggravated the overallimpact cost of water main failures and also compared the direct costs with the indirectcosts. Direct costs are paid by the utility in the form of emergency repair expenses,whereas the indirect costs are left to be borne by the society. Several factors were foundto influence the overall impact cost of water main failures. It was also found that theshare of indirect costs is more than that of direct costs on an average for the 20 casestudies. Knowledge of true failure costs will better prepare water utilities in appropriatelyprioritizing the deteriorating assets for repair. Documenting the impact costs of morenumber of water main failures will serve as a database that water utilities and otheragencies can use for capital improvement planning