Time to Consider AWT Technology

At the Marco Town Hall meeting Thursday, sponsored by Councilor Tamara Goehler and moderated by Assistant City Manager Casey Lucius, there was much discussion on poor water quality and potential impacts from all the nitrogen and phosphorus in the City's reuse irrigation water. 

Every day the City processes, on average, two million gallonsof domestic wastewater for reuse as Irrigation on the golf courses, roadway landscaping, major condominiums, hotels, Veterans Park and elsewhere. 

Based on the City's numbers, the annual pollutant load to Marco's environment from irrigation water is 20,000 pounds of phosphorus and 60,000 pounds of nitrogen. Upgrading the current Reclaimed Water Facility to common Advanced Wastewater Treatment technology (AWT) will cut these quantities by 2/3. That alone will remove 13,000 and 40,000 pounds, respectively, from Marco's environment. By going to a higher standard with available technology Marco could reduce the 20,000 pounds of phosphorus to 3,500, and the 60,000 pounds of nitrogen to 10,000. Please recognize my numbers are approximate. 

Another resident presented a financial analysis on the cost of upgrading to AWT, indicating that the potential cost to taxpayers would be in a range of $21 to $64 per year. The resident also noted that even if the analysis is 100% off, it would still be less than $150 per year. The audience seem to agree that it would not be a lot of money to help improve Marco's water quality, and certainly worth it. As a taxpayer I totally agree.