Water reuse in Spain: Data overview and costs estimation of suitable treatment trains

Until now, there has not been a compilation of data concerning the reuse of treated effluent in Spain. Since January 2005 and at the request of the Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs, the Hydrology Research Center (CEH) of CEDEX has been preparing a Database with information regarding the reuse activities in every Autonomous Community. This information compiles the types and characteristics of regeneration treatments adopted for various uses and the places where regenerated water is being used. In addition, it includes regenerated treatment under construction and future projects as well, which have been gathered together from different sources such as River Basin District Management or Autonomous Communities Reuse Programs. This whole laborious job is composed of four main parts: Database design, fieldwork collection of data, checking and storage of data and to make easier the management of data and connection of this database with a Geographic Information System (GIS). This basic information is essential to develop the State Water Reuse Plan that is currently being written in Spain. This paper shows the main results of the Database and a proposal of regeneration treatments to meet legal requirements in Spain, where a general estimated cost of investment and operation are included. The majority of costs presented are based on real Spanish regeneration plants although there are prototype processes in which costs have been calculated with additional references and using the knowledge of the authors and operators. State of the reuse of treated effluent in Spain is an internal report based on the RDB data and delivered by CEDEX to the Ministry of the Environmental last year. It gives an overview of the status of water reuse in Spain by Basin Departments and Autonomous Communities. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.