Benefits to Using Reclaimed Water

Do you realize that if you irrigate your lawn with reclaimed water, there is no need to use fertilizers? Think about it? Where does reclaim water come from? It comes from the residences' and businesses' wastewater. However, Federal and State Environmental Protection agencies established strict regulations to ensure the reclaimed water is safe to use on our landscape by limiting the amount of contaminants that are in the reclaimed water. Golf courses use it and they do not fertilize. So, why do some of us who have reclaim water, still fertilize our lawns? All it does is seep into the groundwater and contaminate our water resources and aquifer.

I live in Florida. Florida is leading the nation with reusing 660 million gallons of reclaimed water each day to conserve its fresh waster supplies so our rivers, streams, lakes and aquifers are not depleted. Reclaimed water helps conserve drinking water which could become a scarce commodity one day.

Here are some facts on reclaimed water that you may not be aware of:

Public access reclaimed water meets over 95% of the drinking water standards.

Reclaim water is crystal clear. However, you would not want to drink it.

Reclaim water does not stain or smell - any brown stains or rotten egg odors come from shallow well irrigation and not reclaimed water irrigation.

Reclaimed water has a 40+ year history in Florida, with absolutely no incidence of illness according to a 2006 study from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

According to the latest national study from the Wateruse Foundation that will be published in 2008, comparing reclaimed water quality to the surface and groundwater, it showed that preliminary results indicate that reuse, surface, and groundwater are more similar than dissimilar" and "the largest difference between reuse and the other waters is that reuse has been disinfected.

Not everyone has reclaimed water coming out of their irrigation system. However, for those that do, there are benefits of having reclaimed water irrigation without any negative impact either to the environment or to a homeowner. Plants, lawns, and trees show better quality growth than those that are irrigated with well water, city, or county water - and this is because of the natural fertilizer makeup that you get from the wastewater that flows to your reclaimed water. So if you have reclaim water, think twice before you use any additional fertilizer on your lawn, trees, or plants.

Source: University of Florida - Institute of Food and Agricultural Division