TITLE:
Assessing Risk of Injection of Reclaimed Water into the Biscayne Aquifer for Aquifer Recharge Purposes
AUTHORS:
Frederick Bloetscher, Daniel E. Meeroff, Pollop Phonpornwithoon
KEYWORDS:
Potable Reuse, Risk, Rotavirus, Groundwater Contamination
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.7 No.7,
July
29,
2019
ABSTRACT: The recharge of non-potable water into a drinking
water aquifer is one means to overcome decreasing groundwater supplies and
maintain availability of these resources for current and future generations.
However, health concerns exist regarding the use of waters of “impaired
quality” such as reclaimed wastewater for aquifer recharge. The objective of
this study is to evaluate the potential risk to drinking water from the use of
reclaimed water for recharge purposes using
computational modeling with MODFLOW and MT3D groundwater transport
simulation based on an actual situation using rotavirus as a surrogate. The
results from the simulation showed that after seven months, the risk of
contamination based on concentration contours from the injection well to the production
wells was stabilized below 10-6.