What has LOTT learned about the safety of reclaimed water?

Besides reporting on the results of a 10-year study, they seek feedback from the public about it

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Having recently completed its ten-year study on reclaimed the safety of reclaimed water, the LOTT Clean Water Alliance is hosting two kinds of events to involve the public. These include:

A community forum on the results next Monday, August 15, at 5:30 p.m. Interested community members can pre-register by sending an email.

An online open house website that discusses the results and invites residents to respond to a survey.  This open house is running now through September 15.

LOTT Assistant Executive Director Matt Kennelly discussed its study with the Lacey City Council on July 28, assuring that reclaimed water had “very low risk” to humans and was of “no risk” to the environment.

The study, which started in 2013 and was led by HDR Engineering, was meant to attend to community concerns over the safety of reclaimed water and the chemicals that remain in it and involved fieldwork and analysis over the course of ten years, focusing on LOTT’s Hawks Prairie Recharge Basins.

According to LOTT, some of the study’s findings reveal that:

·         Residual chemicals are present in our environment from multiple sources

·         After reclaimed water is infiltrated into the ground, residual chemicals decrease as the water travels underground and mixes with groundwater

·         Risk to human health from residual chemicals in reclaimed water is very low

·         No risk to ecological health was found

Local, state, tribal, and national experts in hydrogeology, environmental engineering, and risk assessment contributed expertise and oversight to ensure a rigorous and objective scientific effort,” LOTT reported in a press release.

“Study findings and community feedback will be used to help inform a broader master planning effort that is currently underway to reassess options for managing wastewater into the future,” explained LOTT’s in its statement, which added, “Master planning will be the topic of two additional forums planned later in the year.”

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  • BobJacobs

    This deserves our close attention, perpetually.

    Our elected officials face significant financial pressure to find this infiltration process safe because alternatives are expensive. But our groundwater is precious -- the source of all of our drinking water.

    Bob Jacobs

    Wednesday, August 10, 2022 Report this

  • Cobbnaustic

    Don't drink it now kids, or at least get your Hep-B vaccination first. LOL

    Thursday, August 11, 2022 Report this