Les Hall, Executive Vice President, McKim & Creed
Infrastructure and Environment Division Manager
Interview conducted May, 2003
1
Q: Director
A: Les Hall, Executive Vice President, McKim & Creed
Infrastructure and Environment Division Manager
Q: What is water reuse?
A: Water reuse is wastewater that has been treated to a very high level and can be reused for nonpotable usage, such as car washing, irrigation and things of that nature.
Q: In the simplest terms, how do you treat that water?
A: Normally, we use a biological treatment process using biological bugs to bite down the waste
and degrade the waste to elemental terms. Then you go through a clarification process where the
solids that are built up during the treatment process are sorted out and removed from the waste
stream. Then you go through a filtration process where any of the finds that are left in the
wastewater stream are filtered out. Then after that it would go through a disinfection process
either through chlorination or UV (ultra violet) disinfection and at that point it can be reused.
Q: You mentioned some uses for reused water, could you restate what reused water can be used
for?
A: Reused water, actually we call it reclaimed water, can be reused for many purposes; irrigation
of lawns and shrubberies, car washes, irrigation of farmland, forestland, golf courses. It can be
used in cooling towers for industries. It can be used for almost any industrial type process that
does not require real high quality of potable type water. Potable water is the water you drink. So
any consumptive use that does not require drinking water quality of water; it does not involve
human consumption of that water, you can basically use reclaimed water for that.
Copyright 2003 University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Les Hall, Executive Vice President, McKim & Creed
Infrastructure and Environment Division Manager
Interview conducted May, 2003
2
Q: So you’re telling me that you can’t drink this water?
A: That is correct. Normally you would not drink reclaimed water. Primarily because it has not
been treated to a level of drinking water standards. It is a very high quality of water, but it would
not normally meet all the standards required for drinking water. The biological part of that water
would not meet drinking water standards and some of the chemical constituents would not meet
that.
Q: What is the purpose for reclaimed water, the plant in Craven County?
A: The plant in Craven County was to help protect and minimize the use of groundwater in the
area. Specifically, we use reclaimed water to irrigate recreational areas; soccer fields, softball
fields and baseball fields. That replaced the construction of wells, which would have tapped into
the groundwater system. So, in that particular case, that project saved the use of groundwater in
the New Bern area. As you know, groundwater in that area has become very scarce. So we saved
a resource by using reclaimed water to irrigate with instead of groundwater.
Q: How does that compare with the purpose of the reclaimed water plant in Hampton Roads?
A: The purpose of the groundwater plant in Hampton Roads is a bit different than the one in New
Bern. The one in Hampton Roads is using the reclaimed water and is being sent over to Amoco,
which is an industrial process and they are using that for evaporators and things of that nature-for
industrial use.
Q: Reclaimed water should not be used for drinking water, is that correct?
Copyright 2003 University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Les Hall, Executive Vice President, McKim & Creed
Infrastructure and Environment Division Manager
Interview conducted May, 2003
3
A: It is not advisable to drink reclaimed water, because reclaimed water is not treated to the level
that you would normally treat drinking water. So, I would not recommend drinking reclaimed
water. It is very high quality water, but it should be used for non-drinking purposes.
Q: You gave me an example about New Bern and water scarcity issues, but in a broader sense,
how does reclaimed water help with water scarcity issues?
A: It helps in many ways. The use of reclaimed water helps in the water scarcity issues, because if
you can use reclaimed water, instead of potable water, you do several things. One, you reduce the
amount of water you have to treat to drinking water quality and you reduce the amount of water
you have to withdraw from the source of the drinking water. So, you extend the longevity of the
drinking water source, you also use a valuable resource-reclaimed water-which means you don’t
discharge this water into streams, which in turn, although it’s minimal pollution, it would in fact
pollute the streams. So, you save by extending the longevity of your water supply, you save by not
having to treat the same quantity of water to drinking water standards and you save by not having
to deal with the pollution discharges from wastewater plants into streams. The other thing you
save on is that reclaimed water still has nutrient value. So, particularly if you use it for irrigation
and things like that, you save on fertilizer cost because the nutrients in the wastewater can be used
to grow grass and crops and things of that nature. So, there are several benefits you receive from
using reclaimed water.
Q: When you process reclaimed water, what happens with the leftovers or are there leftovers?
Copyright 2003 University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Les Hall, Executive Vice President, McKim & Creed
Infrastructure and Environment Division Manager
Interview conducted May, 2003
4
A: Anytime you treat wastewater, there are residuals; known as biosolvents, use to be called
sludge, but now we call it biosolvents. Those residuals are removed from the waste stream, either
through clarification or filtration and those are treated in a different process. Normally, in some
way shape or form they are stabilized, either through a digestion process or some type of chemical
stabilization process and those solids can then be used for either fertilizer; spread on land for the
nutrient value they retain, they have organic content so it helps enrich the soil to grow crops.
Basically, whether you treat the wastewater to reclaimed status quality or not, you still have the
residuals to deal with. You are not necessarily producing more residuals because you are using
reclaimed water.
Q: Why don’t more people use this procedure?
A: There are probably many reasons from perceived economics to people, psychologically, not
wanting to come in contact with reclaimed water because they have some perceived notion that it
may be detrimental to their health or something of that nature. It’s also not used because, in a
regulatory environment particularly in North Carolina, it’s not really stressed that you use
reclaimed water. As opposed to Florida, where we have many reclaimed water projects, it is very
much stressed there that you use reclaimed water as much as possible in order to displace the use
of groundwater. In North Carolina, the regulations do not specifically require that you use
reclaimed water. So, until there are some regulatory requirements for that, you probably won’t see
a widespread use of reclaimed water. There are several cases where people have done an economic
analysis to show that it was economical to use reclaimed water. The case in New Bern was an
example; they saved two or three hundred thousand dollars by doing that instead of using
Copyright 2003 University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Les Hall, Executive Vice President, McKim & Creed
Infrastructure and Environment Division Manager
Interview conducted May, 2003
5
groundwater. There have been some cases in the Neuse River Basin, where in order to remove the
nutrients, because the Neuse rules requires the reduction of nutrients in the waste stream being
discharged, it’s been proven to be cost effective to use reclaimed water and not discharge it. You
get credit for removing the nutrients that would have been discharged by using the reclaimed water
outside the stream for other purposes.
Q: Are there other states besides Florida that have regulations about using reclaimed water?
A: Yes, Arizona, California, a lot of states have regulations pertaining to reclaimed water. North
Carolina adopted their regulations in 1996, but it’s very much a voluntary set of rules and
regulations, in compliance at least. So it’s not as mandatory driven as say the state of Florida is.
Copyright 2003 University of North Carolina at Wilmington