How does soil aquifer treatment work?
Soil aquifer treatment (SAT) is a treatment and storage system that allows for augmentation of potable water supplies with recycled water (indirect potable reuse.) It includes three components: • infiltration of treated wastewater through a biologically active interface less than three feet in depth • percolation through a vadose zone, 10 to 100 feet deep • storage and/or transport in an underlying aquifer (0.5 to 10 years duration), prior to withdrawal via wells The Foundation report Soil Aquifer Treatment for Sustainable Water Reuse (order # 90855) evaluated the sustainability of SAT and elucidated SAT processes to improve the design of such systems. According to the results of this study, for indirect, potable reuse, the two SAT options are: • SAT with reclaimed water without membrane pretreatment • Groundwater recharge with reclaimed water treated by reverse osmosis (RO) The study verified that several trace organic compounds of anthropogenic origin persist after SAT, but found tha
