Volusia County Moves Toward ‘Toilet to Tap’ Ban

The Volusia County Council on Tuesday voted to move forward on a measure which could ban ‘toilet to tap’ within certain areas of the county. For now, a county ordinance will be drafted and the issue may appear on a ballot for its fate to be decided by Volusia voters. The County Council only has the authority to act in the areas where it provides utility service. It would not affect areas whose utilities are provided by either city governments or private companies. That means the area in question is only around 7% of the total service area in Volusia County. What is Toilet to Tap? Direct potable reuse, or ‘toilet to tap’, is the process of treating wastewater to make it suitable for reusage. The practice has been implemented in some areas of the country such as California and Colorado, where water is processed to be placed back into the areas’ tap water supplies. An alternative process, known as indirect potable reuse, would treat the water and then return it to bodies of water which are used as sources for tap water such as lakes, rivers, and aquifers. This would, in theory, reduce the concentration of reused water in residents’ tap water without scrapping the process altogether. Engineers behind the process claim it can help during water shortages, reduce the strain placed on tap water sources, and lower the overall water demand in areas where it’s used. “It is cheaper; it is a guaranteed resource,” said chemical engineer Peter Scales in a feature from BBC. Skepticism arises from those who question whether treated wastewater can be truly sanitary for consumption. Some experts, such as Orange County’s Shivaji Deshmukh, are confident that human waste is thoroughly removed in the treatment process. The Volusia County Council indicated they’d like to preclude the possibility of putting that to the test with local tap water. Toilet to Tap in Volusia County As of now, direct potable reuse is not being implemented in Volusia County. If the county bans the process, it won’t halt any existing operations. Such a measure would simply prevent it from being conducted in the future. Councilman Jake Johansson, the at-large representative, questioned whether action was necessary in the absence of any clear efforts to launch toilet to tap. He expressed weariness at legislating against programs which have not been considered and vetted by future County Councils when circumstances may have changed. Johansson reached a disagreement during Tuesday’s County Council meeting with Chair Jeff Brower, who is adamantly opposed to direct potable reuse. Brower argued that recent projects in Deltona indicate that the technology may soon be implemented locally. The Deltona city government is in the process of developing an aquifer storage and recovery facility, as well as an injection well. Their efforts would potentially allow the city to draw from treated wastewater as an alternative to other sources such as surface water and treated stormwater. Next Steps If direct potable reuse is banned in Volusia County’s service areas, it’ll be largely due to the efforts of Daytona Beach’s Greg Gimbert. Since January, Gimbert has advocated for a charter amendment which would ban toilet to tap in Volusia County’s utility service area. It appears a vote on whether to place the issue on the ballot for Volusia voters will be taken up at the County Council meeting on March 3. For it to pass, it would need at least a five-vote majority on the seven-seat Council.