Survey of users and providers of recycled water: quality concerns and directions for applied research

Users and providers of recycled water in Queensland, Australia, were canvassed to ascertain concerns about recycled water quality and directions for applied research. Some 79% of respondents had concerns about recycled water quality including microbiological components, such as viruses, parasites and bacteria, salinity related components, aggregate components, such as pH and solids, nutrients, organic components, including pesticides and endocrine disruptors, as well as quality variability. Relative differences in the proportion of concern for some quality characteristics were observed between the areas of different population density with those from the low population areas being more concerned than those from medium or high areas. Some users and providers observed changes in recycled water quality during distribution including nutrients, chlorine, solids, colour and odour. Some 52% of providers and 19% of current users propose to expand their usage and 30% of non-users propose to commence doing so in the next 5 years. Recycled water quality characteristics identified for applied research included microbiological components, organic components, nutrients and salinity.