Let’s start thinking about water!

Augmentation of reclaimed water with excess urban stormwater for direct potable use

Ikehata (aka Dr. K) and co-authors investigated the use of stormwater to dilute treated wastewater to avoid the use of advanced filtration and the disposal of brine concentrates. To do this, they sampled treated wastewater, stormwater, and rainwater at Texas State University and tested each for water quality. 

Rainwater had the best water quality, followed by stormwater, which met all drinking water standards except turbidity, apparent color, and heterotrophic plate count. Stormwater had much lower nitrate-N (1.1 milligrams per liter) and total dissolved solids (122 milligrams per liter) than treated wastewater (12 and 700, respectively). Therefore, blending stormwater with treated wastewater results in lower values when compared to unblended wastewater. The authors found that medium-size suburban communities in a warm and semi-arid climate, such as Central Texas, might be the most promising locations to implement stormwater–reclaimed-water blending for potable reuse.

Short-term associations between precipitation and gastrointestinal illness-related hospital admissions—A multi-city study in Texas

Du and the what-what take a gander at the relationship between rainfall events and (ahem) hospital admissions for gastrointestinal illness (I think this means “explosive diarrhea”). A previous study had shown that, elsewhere, about 50% of waterborne disease outbreaks were preceded by rainfall events above the 90th percentile and around 70% by precipitation events above the 80th percentile. The authors looked at Texas data between 2004 and 2014 and found that the risk for gastrointestinal illness was higher in Dallas, with rains between 0.13 and 0.5 inches, and in Houston, when rains were between 0.24 and 0.96 inches. Austin and San Antonio showed no change. Children had a higher risk of gastrointestinal illness after rainfalls, especially in Houston. Du and friends suggest that increased exposure to pathogens may occur from recreational exposure and through drinking water supplies.

Addressing challenges to ensuring justice and sustainability in policy and infrastructure for Texas water resources in the 21st Century

Texas lags behind the federal government (at least at present…) in considering environmental justice and sustainability in water management. While some Texas localities include equity and sustainability in their climate action plans, many others do not. Cook and compatriots (full disclosure: I am a compatriot) provide a review of environmental justice and sustainability issues in Texas water.

Texas, like many states, face a number of equity and sustainability challenges for water, including infrastructure degradation, access, affordability, contamination, and flooding. Cook et al. suggest using nature-based infrastructure, One Water, equity in allocating government funds, incorporating community voice, and identifying and dismantling causes of inequity. In this latter item, the authors present a research agenda to increase our understanding of access, affordability, and contamination and inform potential policy changes. In conclusion, the authors recommend that water practitioners commit to understanding water equity issues, incorporating historic and modeled climate change in water planning, engaging communities early in research and water planning efforts, identifying and mitigating equity challenges, and developing and adopting state-level climate action.