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Am I the only one uneasy about the output being sent to the municipal water supply? If this system has any flaws and/or mishaps allowing landfill leachate toxi

Am I the only one uneasy about the output being sent to the municipal water supply? If this system has any flaws and/or mishaps allowing landfill leachate toxins to reach the output stage, this loop delivers them directly to the water supply. Wouldn't it be better to send the output back where it came from for the natural process to resume? At least that way if your system is messing up, you're probably not making things worse for people than if you did nothing at all.

maxerickson 4y ago
I'm sure it's going to waste water treatment facilities, so not directly to the water supply (but maybe released quite near water supply intakes). There will be monitoring and so on going on for that to happen. It wouldn't be all that surprising if their agreement with the water treatment facilities said they had to test very regularly. Like they could be required to hold the water and test the batch for PFAS before releasing any of it.
- pengaru 4y ago
  > Like they could be required to hold the water and test the batch for PFAS before releasing any of it. But PFAS aren't the only thing of concern in landfill leachate, and it wouldn't otherwise be normal for wastewater treatment facilities to be drawing water directly from a landfill, not AIUI. This treatment facility is focused on PFAS, but landfills are toxic places for far more reasons than PFAS.
  - coryrc 4y ago
    They must have been doing something with it before.
exabrial 4y ago
Where do you think the water you're drinking now comes from?
- nonethewiser 4y ago
  The ground under my front yard.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  Mine comes predominantly from a large lake up in the mountains, which itself gets filled from the sky. There are undoubtedly some pollutants, but they are very diluted and easy to treat. Pulling water directly from under a landfill definitely ups the risk that treatment might miss something.
cowsandmilk 4y ago
To be clear, almost no cities recycle their wastewater back into drinking water. In modern times, storm water is generally directed into wastewater and that has many of the same nasty chemicals you find in landfill leachate. I’m not sure what you’re suggesting even. If you dump all the water back on the landfill, most of it is just going to flow straight back through. You can’t do this. The liquid is removed because if you let too much liquid build up, the leachate will create too much pressure and break the membrane and leak into the groundwater. In most landfills, the accepted process is wastewater treatment followed by release into rivers.

maxerickson 4y ago

I'm sure it's going to waste water treatment facilities, so not directly to the water supply (but maybe released quite near water supply intakes). There will be monitoring and so on going on for that to happen. It wouldn't be all that surprising if their agreement with the water treatment facilities said they had to test very regularly. Like they could be required to hold the water and test the batch for PFAS before releasing any of it.

pengaru 4y ago
> Like they could be required to hold the water and test the batch for PFAS before releasing any of it. But PFAS aren't the only thing of concern in landfill leachate, and it wouldn't otherwise be normal for wastewater treatment facilities to be drawing water directly from a landfill, not AIUI. This treatment facility is focused on PFAS, but landfills are toxic places for far more reasons than PFAS.
- coryrc 4y ago
  They must have been doing something with it before.

exabrial 4y ago

Where do you think the water you're drinking now comes from?

nonethewiser 4y ago
The ground under my front yard.
rootusrootus 4y ago
Mine comes predominantly from a large lake up in the mountains, which itself gets filled from the sky. There are undoubtedly some pollutants, but they are very diluted and easy to treat. Pulling water directly from under a landfill definitely ups the risk that treatment might miss something.

cowsandmilk 4y ago

To be clear, almost no cities recycle their wastewater back into drinking water. In modern times, storm water is generally directed into wastewater and that has many of the same nasty chemicals you find in landfill leachate. I’m not sure what you’re suggesting even. If you dump all the water back on the landfill, most of it is just going to flow straight back through. You can’t do this. The liquid is removed because if you let too much liquid build up, the leachate will create too much pressure and break the membrane and leak into the groundwater. In most landfills, the accepted process is wastewater treatment followed by release into rivers.