Virginia Uses Treated Wastewater to Shore Up a Drinking Water Aquifer
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) says that it has found a method to reverse the impact of groundwater pumping on groundwater supplies, a practice that, until recently, was considered a necessary tool for reducing water usage as Virginia prepares to meet its water needs this year.
DEQ’s action in the process uses treated wastewater that was previously used as a drinking fountain.
The wastewater, pumped from a deep basin on an experimental basis by DEQ for two seasons, has had a “detrimental” impact on groundwater supplies in the area, the agency says.
Virginia used a groundwater treatment process in the 1960s, but it has been almost completely stripped out during the past 25 years.
There are about 300 pumping wells in the area, and Virginia’s drinking water supplies are being threatened.
The DEQ is going to use it in the future.
“It has been a long time now,” says DEQ Director, Frank E. Combs, pointing out that the groundwater withdrawal method, now being explored in the area, was not originally planned as an option.
Now, it’s on the menu for this year.
“These are not the typical wells… these are deep wells,” he says.
Virginia’s water table in the area was already falling, and it wasn’t because of drought conditions.
“These are really the deep wells where we have a lot of concern about whether this water will be available in the spring,” Combs says.
This spring, a DEQ employee named David B. Shiver will take the wastewater basin and install a cap on it, using DEQ’s existing groundwater treatment methods.
The treated wastewater should create a more effective barrier within the basin in the future, Combs says.
DEQ is a state agency that oversees water quality and works with the local water agencies to decide how much to allow each year into each public water supply.
“We have a very good relationship with the local water agencies, and I can tell
